[Average Bro's DVD Commentary: This post is a few years old, but somehow still gets lots of new page reads on the regular. I got slammed for what some saw as old man's thinkin', or worse, homophobia for some of what's said here. I don't rewrite posts as a matter of principle, but I can admit that some of this came out the wrong way.]

As ya’ll know, AB Loves Da’ Kids. My site’s ulterior motive is to trick convince you guys to Take The AverageBro Challenge and spend an occasional Saturday morning with an impressionable Black youth. I know I talked hella greasy about Atlanta rapper TI for trying to knock off his community service by speaking to Atlanta-area teens. But reality is if more black folks who’ve “made it” took a moment to help others out, there would be no such need. Basically, if you’re not doing anything to prevent the next Latarian Milton, Genarlow Wilson, or Bryant Purvis, you shouldn’t say jack when the inevitable happens.

Stepping off my high horse, I witnessed something truly odd today when I went to the mall to grab some Mother’s Day gifts. As I was getting out of my car, a gold sedan packed four-deep with young black teens pulled up in the spot adjacent to me. The dudes were typical suburban wannabe thugs. Oversized cubic zirconium earrings. Pinwheel New Era caps. Those stupid lookin’ skater hoodies. This in and of itself is nothing notable, but what really hit me was the music they had blaring at 120 decibels from their stereo.

Deez bamas were riding four deep in the burbs, blastin’ Moments In Love by Art of Noise.

If you don’t know this song, just listen and you’ll get my point.

 

All together now… “Ewwwww!!!“.

Anyways, as I walked away shaking my head, it suddenly occurred to me just why male mentors are so important. Young dudes of Generation Xbox are more likely than any other to have not grown up with a father, uncle, grandpa, or some man in their lives to tell them it is emphatically not gangsta to roll four deep, or even two deep, blasting quiet storm-type slow jams with your boys. That’s babymakin’ music. That’s Skinemax 3am flick music. That’s Alphas humping the floor at a stepshow music. That’s not ridin’ four-deep with my homies to the mall music. Call me old, homophobic, sexist, or whatever ist/ic you’d like, but that idd’ish was just so wrong.

Since I can’t personally be a mentor to all youngins, I figured I’d throw together a list of avuncular advice for this latest generation of young bucks who don’t know no better. If you know a black male 21 and under, feel free to cut and paste this post and send it to them. Since they probably won’t bother reading it, title the email “Melyssa Ford Topless Photos” or some such nonsense to trick em’. While I thought that Budweiser campaign was jive silly, I have to liberally jack the concept to help steer our young black men from the path to prison and general mediocrity.

So in that spirit, here’s a few more of AB’s New “Man-Laws” For Young Black Males.

1) MySpace Rapper Is Not a Legitimate Career Option – The problem with rap music nowadays is too many damn rappers and not enough fans. Watch 106th and Park, cruise the comments section at XXL, or just drive around your nearest hood and peep the scrum stapled to every telephone pole. You’ll see plenty evidence that MySpace Rapper is the new ghetto dream/hood come-up. The problem is, most of these rappers suck, and none of these dudes trying to rap have apparently noticed that music period, not just rap music, isn’t even selling anymore! You’d be better off goin’ to trade school, getting that GED, or just goin’ back to hustlin’ than you would trying to “get your label off the ground”. There’s only one Jay-Z for a reason. And guess what? You ain’t him! Stay in school, fool.[1]

2) Bright Colors Are Not Your Friend – This trend is thankfully jumping the shark as I type this, but what the hell ever happened to wearing earth tones, or just plain black? Bamas will rock pastel polos, Crayola-inspired sneakers, and those stupid lookin’ multicolored pinwheel baseball caps like they’re 3rd graders. Enough already.

3) Be Nice To Johnny Law – My Pops taught me a very basic rule for dealing with the cops: Don’t! 99% of the time, if you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. So when a cop pulls you over, comply. Don’t act a damn fool and end up in a pine box. Yes, there are some egregious examples of cops who blatantly abuse their power, but far more often, the catalyst for an ass whoppin’ is some Negro who just didn’t know when to shut up. Do what they ask you to do, take down badge numbers and names, and live to tell your lawyer about it the next day.

4) ‘Shawty’ Is Not A Term of Endearment – Learn how to treat and talk to women. One benefit of youth is having the room to experiment and figure out what you like about the opposite sex without tangible committments (ie: a ring and kids). So, by all means enjoy yourselves. But no woman likes to be catcalled and shouted at. “Ay Ma!”, “S’up Shaaawwtaaay!”, and “C’mere Girl!” are not proper ways of attracting young ladies. Learn how to simply smile, say “Hello“, and introduce yourself. And if the girl isn’t interested, no need to insult her by hurling an “Eff’ You Beeyotch!” as she walks away. Just pick up your dignity and keep on’ fishin’.

5) Enunciation Is A Beautiful Thang - My Pops also taught me the importance of how to speak to grown-ups in a way that commands respect. Speak loudly, clearly, enunciate, and use direct eye contact if you want to be taken seriously. Don’t show up for your job interview wearing aviator shades and mumbling to the floor like one enterprising young brother I observed at an H&M store in Philly last Summer. Discover the joys of code-switching, and learn the appropriate places and times for using words like “jawn”, “young”, and “tight”. Eliminate the word “conversate” from your vocab altogether. If you’re vexed, peep my epic The AverageBro Broken English Hall of Shame post, and it’s accompanying comments for further guidance.

6) Pull Up Your Damn Pants – We already talked about the whole bright colors thing. But hues aside, make sure you’re putting your best foot forward when the occasion deems to necessary. All pencil jeans should be burned immediately. Ditto for those skater hoodies. Pull up your damn pants. Liberace wore themed belt buckes. If you don’t know who he is, Google him, then trash yours. And while I’m all for accessorizing, there is no rational explanation for wearing Air Jordans, a black and white pinwheel cap, aviator sunglasses, and carrying a walking cane when you’re wearing a black suit… at a funeral. Exercise some common sense and dress according to your environment. And oh yeah, no more pencil jeans.

7) Leave An Open Seat – This is closely related to the No Slow Jams rule. If you’re at the movies and there’s enough space, for the love of all things precious, leave an empty seat between you and your boys! You are not on a date, you are watching a movie with friends, so space it out. You can communicate with each other just fine when separated by an empty seat, and who knows, if you’re lucky, a nice young lady might want that seat. And you won’t even have to call her “shawty” either.

Blunts Are Not A Nutritional Supplement – Your body is your temple; not an ashtray for roaches. Two Strawberry Swishers (or Phillies, whatever floats your proverbial boat) do not equal a serving of fruits and veggies. Recreational drug habits make it difficult to hold down a real job, rob you of pocket change, and permanently char your lips. If you’ve really gotta do this though, at least have the decency to partake in the sanctity of your Mama’s basement, not while driving your Mama’s car down Georgia Ave. in mid-day.[2]

9) Enough With The Feminine Grooming Habits – I’m a Kappa Man, so I understand the importance of looking good. That said, some of these young dudes nowadays are taking the whole Omarion/Ne-Yo I’m-So-Hood’ metrosexual thing a bit too far. Baby hair is for babies. You shouldn’t be using your little sister’s makeup pencil to draw imaginary hair anywhere on your person. And if you’ve actually arched your eyebrows, or even remotely considered arching your eyebrows, just go ahead and stick your head in an oven right now.[3] Life isn’t getting any easier.

10) Read A G.D. Book – This isn’t strictly a young black male phenomenon by any means, but let’s break this habit while we’re still young. Every time I go to the barbershop, I hear all sorts of misinformation floating around. “Obama’s a Muslim.” “Ciara’s a hermaphrodite.” “The reparations checks are in the mail.”[4] “Tupac is secretly living in Brazil.” “John McCain is bringing SlaveryBack… yep.” All untrue, and all easily refutable if you’d read something other than King Magazine and the Post sports section. Man Up! and get yourself a library card. Smart is the new cool, fool.[5]

Again, feel free to disagree and flame me in the comments. If you’re on board, add your additions below. But whatever you do, don’t ignore the message because you dislike the messenger. Either way, Take The AverageBro Challenge to help save our young black boys and girls[6] from a future of Flavor of Love casting calls, HPV, and commissary deposits. And if you can’t do that, at least forward this post to your nephews. P.S.: don’t forget the “Melyssa Ford Topless Photos” subject line.

Because we go to do better than those damn pencil legged jeans.

Question: Got any “Man Laws” you wanna contribute?

[1] No need to fake for you guys. I’m a huge fan of Lowest Common Denominator rap music. Of course I don’t spend hard earned money on this crap, but between mixshows, podcasts, etc. I find plenty of ways to fill up my iPod with the latest snap and trap music. It’s great filler noise for working out, or knocking out the “Honey-Do” List.

[2] Or whatever road is appropriate for your hood/burb.

[3] Word to DP.

[4] No seriously, some dude thought those $400 economic stimulus checks Bush and Co. sent out years ago were slavery reparations. I bet he is really hyped about the $600 checks that just went out. Barbershop K-Nowledge is not power! It’s just ignant.

[5] There I go with the rappin’ again. Seriously though, I do make beats if you’ve got money for em’. Holla at your boy!

[6] I can only write from an male PoV of course, but if you’d like to help me with a New “Girl-Laws” post, email me.

[ORIGINALLY POSTED HERE]

Article by Average Bro

AverageBro is a world champion sh*t-talker and your favorite blogger’s favorite blogger. Peep more at AverageBro.com, or Twitter.com/AverageBro.

Average has written 148 article(s) for us.

 

The last time Mike Tyson saw Tupac Shakur, it was September 7, 1996.

'Pac, who had struck up a friendship with Tyson in the early 1990s, came to Las Vegas like thousands of others to watch "Iron Mike" clean the clock of fellow pugilist Bruce Seldon. That night, Tyson won the World Boxing Association's heavyweight championship title via first-round TKO. After the bout, Mike, 'Pac and Suge Knight headed to the locker room to celebrate. No one knew that prizefight night would also mark one of the greatest tragedies in hip-hop: Tupac was shot as he left the Tyson/Seldon matchup; he died from his injuries a few days later, on September 13.

 

 

 

" 'Pac was just a ball of energy," Tyson recalled of his friend, when MTV News called him up on Wednesday (June 16).

The most prolific MC ever, 'Pac would have celebrated his 39th birthday Wednesday. Instead, the hip-hop community honors Shakur's life and legacy. Tyson remembered him as an individual who was unique, to say the least. The former heavyweight partied with the icon, but the two men also shared some insightful private conversations.

"He was incredible. You knew he was a special person when he's in your presence," Tyson said on the phone from Las Vegas.

"If you had any consciousness of the reality we live in, you could feel his energy. You knew he was a special individual." Mike described their talks as, "purely emotionally intimate talking; expression of feeling. He was very prolific in expressing himself. He had a lot of hostility. I think it was just misguided and misdirected. It was obvious he was a genius, he was a prodigy. Whoa! He was just amazing as far as his energy was concerned. He was explosive � like a black panther ready to pounce."

In the ring, Tyson exhibited 'Pac-like qualities himself. He intimidated the competition, but the people loved him. He was a warrior, the fiercest gladiator the sport has ever seen.

"He looked very destructive. He came across as a world beater," Tyson said. "As far as his music was concerned, his presence and his energy ... the word I'm looking for is fearless. He came across as fearless. When you come across somebody that's fearless, you're a little bit in awe. You're like. 'Whoa!' He's ready to blow, too, at any moment; very volatile. He's very focused. He can go from one second to the next and get very focused."

Tyson and Tupac met during a turning point in both their careers. Iron Mike was the biggest and baddest draw in boxing, but also a year removed from having lost his heavyweight championship. 'Pac was still affiliated with Digital Underground and about a year from landing the star-making role that would launch him: the intriguing, if insane, Bishop in 1992's crime saga "Juice."

"Magic Johnson had a party at the Palladium in Los Angeles," Iron Mike said, jogging his memory. "What year was this? No, I wasn't champion, it was '91. I just fought [Donovan 'Razor'] Ruddock ... I believe I came outside. I was talking to the people running the door. They were friends of mine. They wouldn't let these guys in, Tupac and them. I said, 'Man, let these guys in. You remember how it was with us.'

"So they let him in. 'Pac had said, 'Hold up for one minute,' and he brought back 200 more people. He had a gang of people with him. They said, 'Listen, you can't go through the front, you have to go through the back.' Next thing I knew, it was over. I hear somebody on the mic � he took the mic. Him and his guys got the mic somehow and started rapping. The whole crowd started going crazy. They loved him. The guys from Digital Underground introduced him to me. They said, 'This is Tupac.' I met him, he was very young. He was very happy, vivacious. He just had energy. He was wild, an amazing individual."

More than three years would pass before Tyson and Tupac crossed paths again. In 1995, 'Pac visited the champ at the Plainfield Correctional Facility, in Plainfield, Indiana, where Tyson was serving his sentence for a rape conviction (a crime for which Tyson still maintains his innocence).

"The next time I saw [Tupac] I didn't even know who he was," Tyson said. "I knew he was '2Pac.' But his mother had wrote me a letter in prison ... I remembered that night. He came to prison to see me. We spoke. He was so much more confident than when I had met him the other time, probably a year or two prior to that. He had gone from being shy guy to very strong-willed and confident and independent. He was tremendously feeling himself. He had so much confidence. He was bursting off the air.

"He came to the prison. He was standing on the table, started talking. All the people in the prison started going crazy. I said, 'Sit. Sit down. Sit, brother, sit,' " Tyson recalled. "The white prisoners, the guards, everybody went crazy in this redneck prison. They went nuts when he came in there. I didn't know he was [famous] like that. I didn't know he was like that! I thought he was some young brother. But when he came in, I didn't know people was feeling him like that too. I was like, 'Yo man. Chill, brother.' He was wilding, sweating, talking, being very gregarious. He was prolific. He was talking, having a ball. ... He was very territorial. He was an interesting guy. He was different than any other rapper I had ever met from a philosophical perspective."

Tyson said all of the prisoners were trying to talk to 'Pac and snap pictures with him. But the champ was concerned that all the hoopla might get him thrown out of the facility, which had happened before when other celebs had visited the boxing legend.

"I didn't know Tupac was that big then, because I was inside," Tyson explained. "That's when they had that [East Coast vs. West Coast] beef stuff [with Bad Boy]. I didn't know Tupac was who he was. I had no idea."

Share your memories of Tupac in the comments.

 

 

In my everyday line of work, a good credit score is often times essential for me and a client to work together. There is only one instance where some one’s credit score has no bearing on our ability to work together and that is when the client is paying cash with no financing. In the real estate industry, cash deals happen but the majority of what makes this industry, and most other industries, tick is access to capital via some form of financing. However, if the applicant for credit has a poor credit score and a history of late or non payment of bills, they will simply be denied credit and asked to come back when their score is sufficient. You can improve your credit score in no time with 5 easy steps.

1. Pay down your credit cards – Obviously, one way to improve your credit score is to pay down the debt you already have. What isn’t so obvious is which debt you should pay down first. Because normal life circumstances often leaves us with long term debt like student loans and mortgages, you shouldn’t worry about paying these down immediately. These debts are understood and weight differently in the calculation of your credit score. Credit cards on the other hand is the debt you want to pay down if not completely off as soon as possible. According to MSN Money, keeping a balance below 30% of your credit limit on each card will help your score significantly.
2. Use your old credit cards – In the calculation of your credit score, older accounts bear more weight in the calculation. They show more your payment history and your ability to manage credit. However, if you haven’t used them in a long time, they start to lose their luster in the calculation because non usage is almost as bad as having no credit at all. So, if you have any old cards that you never use, bring them back out 3-4 times a year and charge a small amount. But remember to pay that small amount down or off before the due date of your next statement.
3. Check your report for accuracy – In all the years I have lived on this Earth, there are some things that are pretty obvious to me. But, for some people, those same things don’t even register on their radar. So I’ll go ahead and say it. When it comes to your credit report, you definitely want to check your credit report to make sure it is accurate. Every individual is entitled to one free credit report a year so you have no excuse not to check it. When checking it, you want to look for any negative items like late payments, collection accounts, or items showing unpaid. One can only imagine the damage things like this can cause to your credit score. Now, imagine if these things showed up on your report and they were never supposed to be there in the first place? It happens. So when you check your latest credit report, check for inaccuracies and be prepared to dispute and ill findings.
4. Pay your bills on time – We all have bills and some have more than others. Whatever your current situation, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that every bill has a due date and it is your absolute responsibility to make sure you pay that bill on time. Depending on the bill type, they may or may not report late payments to the credit bureaus. However, if you take too long to pay the bill, they very well could not only report the late payment to the agency, but also send your past due account to a credit collective. An account in collections is just another hit on your credit score that you do not want because they will not go away until a monetary judgement is satisfied.
5. Request new credit with caution – The idea here is to balance the credit you do or do not have with your current credit situation and your current credit limits or amounts accessible. If you already have plenty of credit, then you do not want to take on more than you can manage. Remember, unused credit does not factor in highly when computing your credit score. However, if you have poor credit and are trying to rebuild your credit situation, then applying for new credit via an installment loan or revolving line is a step in the right direction. Just make sure you manage the new credit perfectly and pay your new bill on time.

One of the good things about your credit score is the fact it can always improve unless you already have what is considered ‘perfect’ credit. So, although you may have some blemishes today, tomorrow’s outlook could be improved with just a few easy steps in the right direction. Earlier in the article I mentioned everyone is entitled to a free credit report each year. To obtain your free credit report, go to www.annualcreditreport.com. Just to be clear, this is a report only and will not furnish your most up to date credit score. For a few dollars, you can obtain the report and the score almost immediately. Monitoring your credit report and maintaining your credit score is critical and will always threaten your ability to secure a loan for some of life’s biggest purchases. Don’t hurt your chances tomorrow because of steps you didn’t take the time to complete today. Your credit will follow you throughout your entire life so you might as well take as good of care of it as you can.

Article by Kevin Breckenridge

Helping to raise the financial conscious of those who are consciously aware of the necessity to obtain financial freedom. Through education, exposure, open discussion, and action we can eliminate the financial strain on our pockets. Doing so will allow us to build the capital and asset portfolio necessary to truly enjoy our life as well as elevate the launching pad for our future generations. Follow me on Twitter @Legacieinmotion

 

Usually, the only time you hear the word “marriage” in Hip Hop is when a rapper is talking about being married to the game, married to the money, married to the music or some other non-human entity. Once every blue moon you’ll hear a rhyme about a down ass chick or a ride or die broad, but it’s rare that you’ll hear the word “wife” uttered out of a rappers’ mouth. For some reason, talking about marriage in a music that is roughly 30 years old now is still a risk.

OZONE caught up with Bun B, E-40 and Paul Wall to find out how they’ve balanced their marriages with their successful careers. Each of them are at different stages of their marriages and offer different perspectives and stories of the celebrations and challenges that have greeted them along the way.

How long have you been married?
E-40: We’ve been together 19 years. I was with her before rap. We’ve been together since the summer of 1984. We were teenagers. I played in the marching band at Franklin High School and she was at Vallejo. I always had my eye on her and vice versa and we became a couple. She was there when I was just Earl. She’s been my backbone, my rib. We were living off of love, man. We’ve been together all these years with no fall outs in between, not even a day brah.
Bun B: We are going on 8 years of marriage. We were together for 12 years. We got where I wanted to be financially so that we could get married. We wanted to have a real nice wedding without doing what most young couples do and spend all the money on the wedding and leave nothing to start off with. We wanted to celebrate doing everything the right way and set an example for our kids. We didn’t want them to grow up and be shacking up.
Paul Wall: We’ve been married for 5 years. We’d already been together for a while. Our bond together got stronger when we got married though. She was already my best friend, someone I talk to every day and don’t get tired of. When we got married, our bond just got unbreakable. We got closer.

Do you have your wife involved heavily in your career? Has it ever been an issue as far as time spent at home as opposed to being out working?
E-40: She used to come to the studio with me a lot. But when I started putting a lot of hours in and we had two sons, the kids had her occupied being a mom. I’m not trying to make it look like a perfect picture, but it was. We had hard times, I had my ups and downs before rap, you take your lumps financially, but once I got on, I felt I wasn’t gonna take my foot off the industry’s neck. That’s why I’ve been going hard all these years. But with me and her and the obstacles, she was there when I had funk in the hood. She was just down. I don’t have no complaints. She ain’t one of those materialistic broads. She’s strong. She’s a year younger than me, but we’re cut from the same cloth. We come from a good tradition; we’re from the old school.
Bun B: My wife is highly involved. A lot of the decisions I’m making at this point of my career have a lot to do with where I want her and my family to be. My wife has a good ear for things that ladies like, what women listen for in music. She is built differently from other women. She’s seen a lot of things in her time so I can talk to her about a lot of things like life and current events. She keeps me balanced.
Paul Wall: When I met her, she was a singer in Houston locally, just trying to make it on the Houston scene. She sounded really good on the Swishahouse mixtapes and she was doing stuff for Lil Keke. So she’s already creative. She’d come to the studio with me sometimes, hear a beat and come up with an idea for something. She really helped me out on a song I recorded with Trina once. Even though she wasn’t singing on it, she had good ideas for me. I’m a prude, so I try to stay away from getting too explicit. So she has to encourage me to rap a little dirty sometimes.

Do you try to keep them near you often? Like take them on the road with you a lot?
Bun B: Sometimes it feels weird when my wife is not around. I get to go to a lot of places and do a lot of things that most people never get to do or see. So more than anything I want my wife to be around to experience those things too. I want to experience those things with someone I can talk about it with 10-15 years from now.
E-40: I just try to take her to the right shit. When I perform, I perform in some of the grittiest clubs, and the nicest arenas. I don’t want to put her in harm’s way, because we all know, this is rap music. I don’t look for trouble, but trouble can find you sometimes. I try to keep her out of the clubs, but I take her to the arenas and the nice clubs. I just try to make the best decisions so I can make sure somebody is there for my kids if something ever happens to me. If I’m on the road for 2 weeks, I’m going to fly her out, or have her on the bus with me. Or I’ll fly home on in-between down days when nothing’s going on.
Paul Wall: She comes with me a lot. She brings the kids too. Family is a big part of my life. Being away makes it hard for me. Any tour I go on, she won’t be there the whole time, but she’ll be there for portions of it.

What would you say is one of the best decisions your wife helped you make?
Bun B: If you ask her, she’ll probably say everything. (laughs) But the best decision my wife helped me make was just her being by my side. Especially when I was going through a lot of things with Pimp C being locked up. That was a lot to go through financially, spiritually and personally. She never gave up on me. I was under the impression that UGK would fall apart when Pimp got locked up; a lot of us were. I fell into a very dark place and did a lot of drinking. I wanted to sit back and feel sorry for myself. That was the turning point in my career. From that point on when I decided to not let that situation beat me and defeat me, my career took off musically and we achieved financial prosperity that we have never achieved before.
E-40: Just being there. She ain’t know what I was gonna be. All I did was write raps, but she never knocked me. My brothers always tell me that. She never knew what I was gonna be, but she was always there.
Paul Wall: I can’t think of anything specific, but I know it’s been a few occasions though. Sometimes when I get writer’s block I’ll ask her for help. Like this one time when I was doing a song for Colby O’Donis. When I got the beat, it was jamming, but I couldn’t come up with nothing. She started freestyling and some of the things she said got me going. Next thing I knew the flame was sparked and I wound up laying down two verses to the song.

Have female friends, groupies or just too many women being around ever been an issue in your relationship?
Bun B: I don’t play when it comes to respect when my wife is concerned. For a while I would tell people to just keep all women away from me. But my wife said I can’t do that because a lot of women are fans of mine. She told me I had to learn the differences between a groupie and a fan. She said, “A groupie wants to hold you and fan wants to hug you.” She said I can’t penalize fans for what groupies do. But we’ve only had 3 instances in 12 years when somebody disrespected.
Paul Wall: Not really. Even when it comes to girls in the video, she makes friends with them. Or she might pull me to the side and say, “She’s ugly. Take her out of the video.” It’s funny how she be on the set doing that. But all the women usually flock to her. Even when we in the clubs, the women always go to her. They don’t even be worrying about me. Based on what I have seen though, a lot of people like to be messy. I’m honest and faithful to my wife. If I wasn’t faithful that would be a problem. I think being faithful is a big part of the success of our relationship.

Do you think marriage will ever become more acceptable to rap about?
E-40: This game is like making movies, but people take music literally. When you rap about something, people say you ain’t doing that. Me personally, I make songs about my wife. I just did a song called “All I Need.” If you came in the game real mannish, people want to see you stay that way lyrically. I’ve got a young and old audience so I have to mix it up. At the end of my day I go home to my wife. Now I’ve said some slick crazy shit in my songs, but my wife knows that I come home to her. She knows this is just my occupation.
Paul Wall: It’s entertainment, so I don’t know. It’s like a secret society. Once I got married, I started noticing that a lot of other people in the industry were married too. Before I was married, I didn’t know that a lot of my friends were married. They introduce me to their wives now. I guess people are protective of their personal lives.
Bun B: People tend to not focus on marriage and family in Hip Hop. Male artists who have a lot of female fans have images to uphold. When they say they’re married, that kinda puts a block between them and the fan. You still want them to scream for you. But that’s just not in Hip Hop, that’s the entertainment industry period. Look at how Usher’s career was affected. Women didn’t feel they could have him anymore.

Do any of you have advice for other rappers thinking about getting married, or even rappers who are married and might not be enjoying it?
E-40: If you find a good one, you probably want to stick with her. It’s not about glamour. You want somebody who’s gonna be there for you. Everybody’s got a main squeeze. If you find a good woman and she’s in your heart, stick with her. Don’t get caught up in all this industry shit, man. Find a down to earth female. Different strokes for different folks, but my advice is if you find a good one keep her.
Bun B: I get calls from younger rappers making the transition. I’ve talked to Wale, Dizzie Rascal and I talk to ESG and Paul Wall on the regular. All I have to tell you is don’t do it unless you are sure. Don’t get married out of convenience, that’s the last thing you want to do. There’s nothing worse than being an unsure married person.
Paul Wall: Keeping your faith in God is a big part of it. I would encourage people not to do it if you’re not ready. Some people do it too soon, and some wait too long. If you think it’s meant to be, do it. But the biggest part of it is being faithful. If you are unfaithful, it makes it hard and it makes [your spouse] very insecure. //

Words by Maurice G. Garland

via ozonemag.com

Have You Kissed The Girls...
And Made Them Cry?

There was a time when men protected their daughters from heathens, hustlers, players, predators, pimps, dawgs, and other indiscriminate males.

There was a time when men honored women and knighthood, chivalry, and nobleness of character were the rule of thumb amongst men.

Since that mindset has shifted, many men are responsible for inflicting women with some severely damaging psychological scars, physical pain and emotional trauma. Have you ruined any female’s life? Have you caused any females to have deep emotional problems?

Before you answer those questions, take the damage assessment test…

by Gillis Triplett

  

Kiss The Girls... And Make Them Cry?
One of my best friends in high school, (I'll call him Mike) grew up in a single-family home. Mike never knew his dad, and his mother was wantonly promiscuous. All three of her children were born out of wedlock... to different men. She raised them to follow in her footsteps. Her two daughters were versed at using their beauty and bodies to manipulate men. The three women would tell Mike all of the time that he was going to be a heartbreaker and they trained him how to be one.

They showed Mike how to seduce women and how to gain control of a woman's emotions. Although he was still in high school, Mike had become a master of seduction! When I saw how the girls swooned over him, my mind was made up... I wanted to be like Mike! He agreed to school me on the rudiments of being a player.

Me and countless others boys always wondered what Mike said to these girls to get them to fall in love with him and to have sex with him. I sincerely thought he was going to show me some super smooth moves and give me some dazzling words to say. Instead, the only thing he taught me was how to be a liar! He told me to lie about everything: my age, the grade I was in, and anything I could think of to convince a female to have sex with me!

He showed me how to instantly get a girl�s attention and how to look a girl in the eyes and say, "I love you," even though I didn't love her. He instructed me on how to evade her or break-up with her after I got into her panties. He showed me other tactics such as how to turn a virgin out, how to manipulate girls and how to date two or three females at the same time. After he was all said and done, I no longer want to be like Mike.

 

From Protectors To Predators... From Princes to Pimps
Multitudes of males in our society are like Mike... they have been indoctrinated to be predators rather than protectors, playa players and pimps rather than princes, and knights in pining armor rather than Knights in shining armor. These males have even arrogantly crept into the church pews! It was a common thing for Mike to prey upon and then seduce untrained church girls. After he stole their virginity and broke their hearts, he would laugh and giggle about his destructive sexual exploits. When we graduated from high school, I lost contact with Mike, but the females whose lives he stained with his presence, I still see every now and then. Some of them never recovered.

Mike never looked back to see if he had impregnated any of those girls. He never checked upon them to see if any of them had aborted his child, or contracted a sexually transmitted disease from him. He never cared if he caused any of them to be heartbroken, depressed, bitter, vengeful or suicidal. To Mike, it was all fun and games. Sex was just a sport and females were his trophies. Since being in the ministry, my path has crossed countless women who have been wounded, scarred, and damaged by males like Mike. How do these females react to being exploited, dismissed, dumped, kicked to the curb, used and abused? The answer may alarm you�

 

Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned?
Many of them react by exacting systematic and methodical vengeance against the male gender. Have you noticed the eerie trend? Follow it closely:

=> More and more females are brazenly filing false rape charges. They agreed to consensual sex, but afterwards, they felt exploited. For some women, that feeling is so sickening that they retaliate by using the District Attorney, a Grand Jury and the Police Department as their personal whipping stick.

 => More and more females are blatantly committing Paternity Fraud. The figures emerging from this crime are frightening. One third of all men who take DNA paternity tests, turn out not to be the biological father of the child. In most states, even after DNA tests prove two key points: (1) he is not the baby�s daddy, and (2) the mother perjured herself on the paternity affidavit, the current law allows these females to continue collecting child support payments. The defrauded men are threatened� pay her or go to jail! I have sat in paternity fraud trials and watched these women smirk at the men they successfully booby trapped.

=> More and more females are using the divorce court and family court as their weapons of chastisement against the male gender. These bitter females go father shopping for disposable dads. They find nice men, marry them, have children by them and in one fail swoop, they take his home, children, cars and cash without any semblance of a conscience. This is truly a hideous act of feminine vengeance. These females have made their minds up� they are going strip a man of everything to get payback for the males who stripped them of their virginity, dignity and self-esteem.

=> More and more mothers are abusing or cold-bloodedly murdering their children and leaving their husbands, boyfriends and lovers stupefied.

=> More and more women are being diagnosed with severe emotional problems, clinical depression, bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder.

=> More and more women are suffering from the psychological, emotional and physical effects of having an abortion.

=> To their own detriment, more and more women are engaging in wanton promiscuity.

=> More and more women are committing acts of domestic violence and becoming suicidal.

What would you find if you did a one-on-one indepth analysis of each of these troubled women? What would you uncover after investigating their background, family life, sexual history, and Relationship Resume? Overwhelmingly, you would find that the source of their vengeance and troubles stems from issues related to exploitation, abuse, domestic violence, rape, abortion, promiscuity, ruptured relationships, failed marriages and fatherlessness. These are acts that took place at the hands of men. Are all of the problems women face a result of what men have done to them? No, and I am not saying that!

Some women are just like some men, they have a rebellious heart and what happened to them was an intentional self-inflicted wound. But the majority of the issues that women face, stems from encounters they have had with men who either: (a) did not understand true manhood, or, (b) they altogether rejected their duties as a man. Have you caused a female to suffer psychological damage, left her with any emotional scars, or inflicted her with any physical wounds? To answer those questions you must take the Damage Assessment Test. A simple, �yes,� or �no,� answer will do.

 

THE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT TEST

Did you...  

1). Steal her virginity, (you were the first one to have sex with her outside of marriage) ?
2). Pressure, coerce or manipulate her into having sex?
3). Talk, persuade, coerce or force her to have an abortion?
4). Talk, persuade, coerced or force her to have a miscarriage?
5). Get her pregnant and then abandon her?
6). Have sex with her when she was a minor?
7). Give her a sexually transmitted disease?
8). String her along with the promise of marriage and then dump her?
9). Commit an act of date rape, acquaintance rape, or rape?
10). Enlist her to become your casual sex partner, booty call or hook-up?
11). Have sex with her and then shun, dump, or dismiss her?
12). Have sex with her and then vanish from her life?
13). Have sex with a prostitute, call girl or otherwise paid a female for sex?
14). Live with her outside of marriage, (i.e., cohabitation, shacking-up)?
15). Tell her that you loved her, but you didn't love her?
16). Take advantage of her when she was vulnerable emotionally?
17). Threaten her with abuse or violence?
18). Commit an act of abuse or domestic violence against her?
19). Lure, seduce or talk her into a dead-end relationship?
20). Recruit, seduce or trick her to reveal her nakedness to other males?
21). Use derogatory words/phrases toward her, after you exploited her?
22). Talk or trick her into supporting you financially?
23). Marry her and then display immaturity, infidelity, or irresponsibility?
24). Toy with her emotions by making false promises, vows or oaths?
25). Patronize a strip club, bordello or other venue that exploits women?
26). Purchase, use, distribute or view any form of pornography?
27). Esteem yourself as a player, playboy, pimp, lothario, lover, etc.?
28). Neglect your duty as her father? 

 

The Mandate From God�
If you have committed any of the above acts, you have abdicated your duty as a man to be a protector. Even if the woman or women initiated the act or happily consented to it, you are still guilty of renouncing your mandate from God as a man to protect them, (See article: The 8 Steps To Manhood). Concerning this critical issue, Jesus set the tone for all men to conduct themselves.

Matthew 23:37
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,... how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

A hen gathers her chicks under her wings when she detects a threat or danger. Jesus used that powerful illustration to vividly illustrate how men were called to be protectors. He then scolded those men for neglecting their duty and responsibility. You had to be there to fully comprehend the Lord's anger toward these men. At the end of the verse, His heated words were, "...ye would not!" In other words, they refused to be protectors. Have you conducted yourself in the same manner as these men? Have you failed or refused to be a protector? Have you kissed the girls and made them cry? You took the damage assessment test, how much damage are you responsible for?

When you look in the mirror of life, do you resemble Mike? Have you stolen a female's virginity, left her pregnant and alone, or forced her to get an abortion? Have you toyed with a woman's emotions? Have you demoralized any woman by loving her and then leaving her? Have you participated in degrading and devaluing women by patronizing strip clubs or viewing pornography? The first thing you need to do, if you haven't already done so, is repent, (See I John 1:9). You not only sinned against her, you sinned against Almighty God, (See Matthew 18:1-10). You need to clear your conscience before God.

The second thing you need to do is make restitution where needed. That means being a father to the children you have fathered. I am not telling you to marry the child�s mother. The two of you together may be like trying to mix water and oil. I am saying if you fathered a child, you need to be their daddy. If their mother is vengeful or bitter and won�t allow it, be advised, you must use wisdom. I have watched these females glory in the fact that they had their baby�s daddy arrested on false charges. Talk to men who understand your dilemma and glean wisdom from their practical and legal insight. You can still pray for your child and support them financially. They need to know that daddy loves them and that you did not abandon them! This is your clarion call to stand up and be a man, (See Job 38:1-3). Not just any man, but a man of God!

The third thing you need to do is learn what manhood is all about! You may be one of the millions of males who were never taught what it takes to be a man. At Mastering Manhood, we�ll show you the ropes. We will impart words of wisdom into your spirit and help get you on track to fulfilling God�s vision for your life. Got questions about manhood? We�ve got the answers!

via gillistriplett.com

Wale's song "Diary" should be the soundtrack to this article.

There’s something in the red kool-aid and the B-Listers on down are drinking gallons of it. It’s making them do things they once thought beneath them, things I thought once beneath them. It’s forcing them to all seem so common. It’s setting them up with a half hour of cable prime time starring in their very own reality TV shows.

With a burst of lace fronts, VH-1, Style, BET and the lot are all welcoming the sistas to the reality TV game.

It’s like the Latin invasion, only with surgically engineered solid C-cups and more melanin.

I call them “The One-timers”.

There’s Chilli, one time singer for the group TLC; Shaunie O’Neal, one time wife to basketball player, Shaq; Pep, one time rapper from the group Salt N Pepa,; Lisa Raye, one time actress; and Brandi, one time teen star, actress and singer. The recurrent theme amongst the One-Timers’ shows is “I can’t get a man.”

 

Don’t you wanna love me? Cuz I don’t really love myself.

In the first episode of “What Chilli wants”, Chilli shares her list of requirements and in addition to no scrubs, she doesn’t want a man that smokes, drinks or eats pork. (Cue the BowTie choir singing, “There’s a place for us”).

Matchmaker Tionna Smalls recruits potentials for Chilli at a Braves game. After corralling several gents into a room and tossing out such deeply meaningful questions like “Are you a freak”, and asks to see their abs as a 6 pack is another requirement of Chilli’s, Tionna finally presents one hopeful- a good looking personal trainer- to Chilli…and a room full of other women for their consensus of approval. He was denied. (awwww…)

As for the latest in Brandy’s world, she was invited to attend the Grammy’s with Flo-Rida, then uninvited because neither of them wanted the media to think they were “together”.

Brandy, how you gon’ get fired on your day off?? And Flo got invited to the Grammy’s and you didn’t? Girl, get back in the studio NOW. And fire your hairstylist. I’ve never seen a weave go all the way to the bridge of someone’s nose like that. I say this with love.

Pep and Basketball Wives are essentially the very same show with different women portraying the role of scorned ex.

 

Mama always said it ain’t trickin’ if you got it!

 

Out of the entourage of supposed Basketball Wives, only ONE has been wifed, another divorced and the rest appear to be baller groupies that lucked into child support. They spend their days shopping and their nights at the club, then meet for cocktails to complain about how good they used to have it when they were with the men that cheated on them.

Lisa Raye says she was driven to the new show by a desire to “come back to her brand”, but outside of portraying a stripper in the film Player’s Club, I’m not aware of her having a brand. In a recent interview when confronted with the perception many have of her as a gold digger, Lisa Raye said, “I dug for gold in high school. I’m a platinum girl now. I’m an international person.” Well, yes, she is an international something. Now, she insists upon only dating men with money because she believes in moving forward after the much publicized split from husband Michael Misick, Turks and Caicos Premier. She’s been romantically linked to Nelly, Ocho Cinco and even Al Sharpton. I understand that it may be difficult to find someone with the same level of success you have, but come on, isn’t Gerardo still available? Sisquo?

She did a spread in the April edition of Black Men magazine scantily clad in a bikini, although she admits it was 23 degrees in the desert where they filmed. She is

 

I am not a whore. I just act, look and think like one.

taking issue with the magazine’s publishing of several photos she deemed inappropriate claiming she was unprepared for the shots even though she is looking right into the camera lens. If I were trying to avoid the publication of provocative and embarrassing pictures of my assets, I would probably put on some damn clothes before the photographer showed up, but that’s just me.

Ladies, did you get jealous of Flava Flav and Ray J? Is that really how you want to be remembered? Is this all black women are because between Stella, Steve Harvey and these shows, they’re giving the other folk that impression.

I don’t consider any of these shows a benign form of entertainment. All of them are a continued perpetration of the myth that black men are nearly extinct or chock full o’problems and black women regardless of level of success just can’t find a man; a myth disproven by statistics and happy relationships around the globe. If Lisa Raye can’t find a man, it’s probably because she is a gold-digger and men with sense can read any one of her 200 interviews stating as much. If Chilli can’t find a man, it might be because she has a list taller than she is of male requirements but none for herself. If Brandy can’t find a man, it’s probably because as evidenced by the show, she can’t seem to cut the apron strings from her family, and her family can’t cut ties with scandal and trifling. And as for the basketball “wives”, well, honestly what man is going to waste his time when he knows a date with you will cost him half plus alimony. So what I’m saying is, Ladies, you’re probably the reason why you’re single. Michelle Obama didn’t seem to have a problem.

If there is any good to come from this new direction in reality TV I guess it’s that it took our minds away from Tiny and Toya and Keyshia Cole’s crazy ass family for a few episodes.

My advice to the entire cast of reality world newbies is this: When you’re DOING YOU, it appeals to others and they’re more apt to want to do you too. Remember your talents and what made you famous in the first place. So Pep, Brandy and Chilli, go make a record. Lisa Raye, find a pole.

I’m just saying.

[ORIGINALLY POSTED HERE]

Article by Sable Verity

Mother, writer and activist, editor and founder of the SV, friends (and enemies) describe Sable Verity as a tireless advocate (or that bitch that just won’t go away), who believes in speaking (ranting) the truth (her irrational race-tinged views). You can find more of her work at www.sableverity.com

 

Articles

Grind to Get It

Rap's Recession

by Tom Breihan, posted April 5, 2010

"Them CDs didn't pay for me to go all across the U.S. It was the paycheck. We grind to get it, baby."

That's ST 2 Lettaz, half of the buzzed-about Huntsville, Alabama rap duo G-Side. ST, along with his brother, runs a gas station. Yung Clova, the other member of the group, owns a barbershop. Huntsville International, the mixtape/street album that the two released last year as a free download, was thematically centered around the idea of music taking them places they'd never imagined they could see: "Wanna shed a teardrop/ Every time my ears pop/ Way out in London repping Huntsville hip-hop." But ST and Clova have never been to London or anywhere else in Europe. They'll tour the continent for the first time this spring.

Ten years ago, G-Side might've had a major label contract in hand, like Montgomery duo Dirty did in the early 2000s. Or they might have slowly built a regional fanbase-- the type that once brought folks like Master P from mythically selling CDs out of the trunks of their cars to writing their own tickets once the labels came calling. With their gorgeous synthetic beats, sticky choruses, and joyously striving verses, Huntsville International and the duo's last album, Starshipz & Rocketz, feel much bigger than they are. It's the kind of thing that could catch on, back when things like that caught on. It's closer to the thoughtful bounce of Atlanta's Dungeon Family than Master P's beautifully ignorant thud, but it has the makings of something that could have once at least become a local phenomenon. And even being a local rap phenomenon used to be enough to pay people's bills. For Dirty, it never translated to national success but in plenty of other locations-- New Orleans, Houston, Atlanta-- this sort of regional fame did.

The Internet has changed rap in a lot of ways. MySpace has done the same thing for rappers that it's done for artists in other music genres, and so many people have used the social networking site to attempt to build audiences that the term "MySpace rapper" has now become a distinct pejorative à la "blog band." And then there's YouTube and Onsmash, sites where rappers can post their low-budget music videos without worrying whether guns and lyrics will make it past censors at MTV or BET, or whether their budgets and productions are up to those networks' standards.

Most of all, there's the matter of the mixtape. Rap mixtapes have existed for about two decades. They were once sold on cassette or in slimline CD cases, usually by bootleggers in mom-and-pop stores or street-corner vendor stands. Thanks to the format's questionable legality, rappers didn't have to worry about clearing samples, and many mixtapes became ways for artists to showcase themselves by performing over established tracks. It's something artists did to keep their name out in the world, but there was at least the vague possibility that someone could make money from them; after all, people did pay five bucks a pop for the things, and that money had to be going somewhere. But now mixtapes exist almost exclusively on the internet, and nobody has to make pilgrimages to hotbeds like New York's Canal Street to pick up the latest product. Rappers are offering the things themselves, for free, at a click. And some of them are pushing the project to absurd extremes. Witness, for example, Atlanta rapper Gorilla Zoe, who released 28 mixtapes in 28 days this past February-- way more music than anyone could reasonably be expected to process. And since these things are being offered for free download, no strings attached, nobody's making money-- just like with MySpace or YouTube.

For the past decade or so, major labels and the mixtape universe have shared an uneasy symbiotic relationship. Mixtapes being both illegal and something that wasn't going to make money directly for the labels, you'd have occasional clashes, like the infamous incident where the RIAA raided DJ Drama's warehouse. More often, though, the majors would use mixtapes like a farm system. 50 Cent became one of the decade's defining stars when he jumped directly from NY mixtape cult fave to massive pop stardom. There were plenty of reasons for 50's takeover: the great story, the pop choruses, the Eminem/Dre cosign, the bullet-dimple smile. But 50's mixtape stardom gave him a grassroots word-of-mouth appeal that no label marketing department could conjure. Other mixtape prospects like Papoose or Saigon never panned out, but then, one Nirvana can buy you plenty of Wools and Jawboxes.

More recently, established major-label stars have used mixtapes to build and maintain buzz. In the two and a half years between the release of Lil Wayne's Tha Carter II and III, the man dumped insane amounts of material onto the mixtape circuit, threatening to saturate the market to the point where nobody would want to pay full-price for his music after buying or downloading it for so long. Instead, the opposite happened. Wayne, flush with goodwill and credibility, sold a million copies of Tha Carter III in a week during an era when those numbers were thought to be long-passed memories.

Wayne's historic triumph happened in summer 2008; yet between the tanked economy and the implosion of the music business, that seems like a long time ago. More recently, another rapper seemed primed to make the leap from mixtape phenom to megalithic pop star. Gucci Mane might not have had Wayne's pop history or crossover appeal, but he did spend the parts of 2008 and 2009 when he wasn't in prison releasing a long avalanche of music onto the mixtape circuit in a run that compares favorably with Wayne's. Everything seemed to be working in Gucci's favor. He had a rabid cult, a way with hooks, a cell phone full of star connections, and a few singles that'd gained grassroots steam. The major label album he released in December 2009, The State vs. Radric Davis, seemed primed to cash in on all this, with its loaded roster of guests and its difficult balance of street-rap grit and general catchiness. But in its first week of release, it sold about 89,000 copies-- respectable, but not even in the same universe as Wayne. To date, it's moved about 300,000-- just a fraction of Tha Carter III's sales. A new superstar he's not.

Gucci's in prison right now, but when he gets out this year, he stands to make plenty of money-- not from record sales but live shows. Especially in the South, there's a thriving network of clubs willing to pay top dollar for performances, and an Ozone article from last year alleged that Gucci's managers had actually made a ton of money booking him for out-of-state live shows despite knowing full well that he wouldn't make it to any of them. Most of these interactions are cash-based, so they're hard to trace. But I once watched the Baton Rouge rapper Lil Boosie-- who, at the time, hadn't had an album out in two years-- get paid a substantial fee, all in stacks of $20 bills, to do a 25-minute show in an Orlando club parking lot.

Boosie wasn't the headliner that night, but he still commanded that kind of money. He'd released one solo major-label album and another as part of a duo with Webbie. He'd had a few minor hits. But like Gucci and Wayne, he'd also released a ton of material onto the mixtape circuit. He'd done well for himself, but he wasn't a major star, and the mixtapes-to-majors model didn't seem to be working for him. (He'd spent that afternoon in a hotel room complaining to me about how his label didn't take him seriously.) So, at least in Boosie's case, the mixtape farm system had, to some extent, broken down, replaced instead with a mixtapes-to-live-shows model. Boosie was still making good money; he just wasn't doing it through record sales.

The Gary, Indiana rapper Freddie Gibbs spent a couple of years earlier this decade signed to Interscope, but the label kept him on the shelf, releasing none of his music. Gibbs only started building a name for himself nationally after parting ways with the label, when he released a couple of highly regarded mixtapes last summer. In the past, he might've leveraged his buzz from those mixtapes to land another major-label deal. And that does still happen sometimes; Gibbs' frequent collaborator Pill reportedly inked a recent deal with the Warner-distributed Asylum after releasing two acclaimed mixtapes. But Gibbs says that he's "not really" negotiating with labels, that he has other career ideas in mind. "When my music starts moving forward, it's helping me get more and more out the streets. I'm starting to get more show opportunities to supplement my income and take care of my family. There's ways to make money in music; you just have to go about it in different areas, other than selling a solid, physical record."

Next:> Internet Success and Failure

1 | 2 | 3 · Next Page →

Ladies please pay attention to this list, take heed and check out out my homie Seven's blog (www.facesbyseven-theblog.com) so ya don't walk out the house looking like a clown lol.

 

It's funny how money change a situation

Miscommunication leads to complication

My emancipation don't fit your equation…

Some wan' play young Lauryn like she dumb

--Lauryn Hill, "Lost Ones"

Scroll back a decade, and there was Lauryn Hill—top of the world, Ma!—clutching five Grammys and sending shoutouts to her babies, thanking them for not spilling stuff all over her designer duds, clearly overwhelmed by the massiveness of it all: "This is crazy," she said, "'cause this is hip-hop music!"

If you were young and female and hip-hop, it couldn't get more fabulous than Lauryn, more celebrated, more anointed, more praised. Ten Grammy nominations: No woman and no hip-hop artist, had managed to do that. Ever. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which was released 10 years ago this month, has since taken its place in the canon of popular music. Lauryn produced, wrote and arranged the album which mixed and matched rap, gospel, doo-wop, reggae, old-school soul and folkie fervor, touching a collective nerve in a way that no hip-hop album had done before. Rolling Stone declared The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill the album of the year; Spin pronounced Hill "Artist of the Year." Fans compared her to Martin Luther King Jr.; Chuck D compared her to sunlight. She was, he said, "the Bob Marley of the 21st century."

It didn't hurt that she was beautiful and petite. It didn't hurt that she didn't seem to want any of it, that she wore the money and fame as lightly and ironically as she did those $3,500 frocks she rocked in the fashion rags.

And then, just like that, she all but disappeared. Only to pop up from time to time for a few random stage shows and a tense mini-reunion with the Fugees in Dave Chappelle's Block Party. (You can't really count that half-hearted MTV Unplugged CD as anything, but more on that later.) Ten years after Miseducation, she remains one of hip-hop's biggest mysteries, mocked for her eccentricities, her every misstep gossiped about in the afrosphere.

There are extroverted divas—Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, Rihanna—who've mastered the art of peddling persona, pimping everything from clothing lines to perfume to American Express. The music seems almost incidental, just another unit to move. Then, too, there are the pragmatic ones—Mary J. Blige, Jill Scott, and, to a lesser extent, Erykah Badu—who find a way to live within the world of fame, being in it, but not of it. But then there are the sensitive souls—D'Angelo, Maxwell, Lauryn—emotional tenderonis who seem to internalize their art, folks for whom fame is a beast. Lauryn, after receiving a big, wet kiss of affirmation, slammed the door on fame. Went into hiding. Not that we shouldn't have expected it. In retrospect, listening to The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill feels more like eavesdropping in on "The Confessions of Lauryn Hill."

She was leaving clues for us all along the way.

Music is supposed to inspire

How come we ain't getting no higher?

Now tell me your philosophy

On exactly what an artist should be

Should they be someone with prosperity

And no concept of reality?

Clue No. 1: She wasn't feeling fame. The spotlight was something to be feared; the people who could bring you riches—record label suits, peddlers of "the capitalist system"—were to be actively mistrusted. In Miseducation, she paints herself as a warrior woman, doing battle against the oppressive "They": The ones who insisted that she get an abortion in "Zion." The ones who "shoot you down in the name of ambition" in "Forgive Them Father." Even as a very young woman—she was 23 at the time—she was acutely aware of the downfalls of being a superstar: "They'll hail you then they'll nail you," she sings in "Superstar," "…They'll make you now then take you down."

At times, her wariness borders on paranoia, with references to "wolves in sheep clothing" and warnings of "beware those who pretend to be brothers." And indeed, later, producers/songwriters Johari Newton, Rasheem Pugh, Vada Nobles and Tejumold Newton would sue her, claiming that they were co-creators on the album and deserved both credit and a cut of the action. (She later settled with the group for a reported $5 million.)

So perhaps it's no surprise that she took the estimated $25 million that she netted from the sales and merchandising of the triple-platinum-selling Miseducation—and ran.

Clue No. 2: Her consuming relationship with religion. After she pulled her disappearing act, Lauryn would reappear from time to time, announcing in interviews that she'd met a spiritual leader. She told MTV Online, "I met someone who has an understanding of the Bible like no one else I ever met in my life. I just sat at [his] feet and ingested pure scripture for about a year." Reports later named the man as a mysterious figure who called himself Brother Anthony. According to Rolling Stone, Lauryn turned her life inside out for Brother Anthony, firing her management team in the process. Brother Anthony was affiliated with no particular religious organization or church; Pras, Lauryn's Fugees' compatriot, described their relationship as "real cult sh--."

But even before Brother Anthony, Lauryn's strong connection to spirituality is evident throughout Miseducation, from her description of an angel coming to visit her to announce her pregnancy in "Zion," to her references to Psalm 73 and her name-checking Cain and Abel, Moses and Aaron and Ethiopia's holy churches in Lalibela.

You could get the money

You could get the power

But keep your eyes on the final hour

At times, she veers into know-it-all territory, preaching and scolding with the finger-wagging zeal of the young and the newly converted: Now hear this mixture/Where hip-hop meets scripture. She's St. Lauryn, a modern-day Joan of Arc doing battle with the evildoers, the patron saint of hip-hop. A martyr who would later go to the Vatican and take on the Pope.

People feel Lauryn Hill from Newark to Israel

And this is real

So I keep makin' the street's ballads

While you lookin' for dressin' to go with your tossed salad

Clue No. 3: Her love life was always a little "crazy." What singer/songwriter hasn't made art from the detritus of a ruined love affair? Lauryn was no exception: She'd experienced heartbreak, and it rocked her. Hard. Word was that she and Wyclef Jean, the third Fugee, had been involved in a tortured liaison that began before he was married and continued through his marriage. Again and again, a duplicitous lover figures in Lauryn's lyrics, a man for whom love is something that he giveth and taketh away.

As painful as this thing has been

I just can't be with no one else

See I know what we got to do

You let go and I'll let go too

'Cause no one's hurt me more than you

And no one ever will

Like many a blues woman before her, Lauryn lets her pain saturate her art. Even the music aches. In "Ex-Factor," she sounds tormented, pleading and entreating, her voice hoarse and straining at the pipes, repeating over and over again, "cry for me /cry for me/you said you'd die for me." Her fragility is palpable. You get the feeling that whatever went down in the Fugees' studio, it did damage.

Even after she broke things off with Wyclef, she couldn't escape the drama. Reports surfaced claiming that the man she called her husband, Rohan Marley, son of Bob, father of her five children, was technically still married to someone else. This month, Marley told People that he and Lauryn were "spiritually together" but that they were not married and did not live together. (He lists himself as single on his MySpace page.) Still, he told the magazine that Lauryn keeps creating music, and the ones—yes, Wyclef, he's talking about you—who say she's crazy are hypocrites who are just out to use her.

"She writes music in the bathroom, on toilet paper, on the wall," says Marley. "She writes it in the mirror if the mirror smokes up. She writes constantly. This woman does not sleep."

Which is too bad. She's got the benefit of 10 years' worth of life experience to cull from now—partnership/mommyhood/love—you can't help but wonder what her music would sound like today. Would we get a finely tuned, mature artist who's marinated in life and who can take the philosophy and wisdom of "Miseducation" one step further? Or would we get the L-Boogie of her MTV Unplugged CD, the one who sounds ragged and off-key, muttering between songs, ""I'm crazy and deranged. . . . I'm emotionally unstable"? To listen to Miseducation today is to marvel at her talent, and to mourn what woulda, coulda, shoulda been.

Teresa Wiltz is a writer in the Style section of the Washington Post.

Dear Lil Wayne Stop Promoting the Bloods

By Casey Gane-McCalla November 4, 2009 3:58 pm

http://theurbandaily.com/news/casey-gane-mccalla/dear-lil-wayne-stop-promoting-the-bloods/

Dear Lil Wayne,

My friend brought over your mixtape , No Ceilings, the other day and I gave it a listen. I have to say I was impressed. You clearly are a talented rapper with an excellent ability to ride beats, clever wordplay and smart punchlines.

Still one thing about the mixtape disturbed me. Your constant references to the Blood gang and soo woops seem like something a 15 year old kid might be saying, not a veteran rapper who has been in the game for more than 10 years.

I realize that many people in poor neighborhoods join gangs because of peer pressure, the threat of other gangs, for a way to make money and for  a sense of family. Still, you have been a professional rapper earning money since you were 14. What reason did you have for joining the Bloods? It seems that you are claiming the Bloods to increase your street credibility and help your record sales.

After the Derrion Albert beating, we see the negative effects gangs have on African American youth. Everyday, gang violence leads to teenagers in the hood getting stabbed, shot or jumped. As the “Best Rapper Alive,” when you start bigging up a gang it makes it seem cool to your young fans. These young fans who use your slang, dress like you dress and idolize you, now want to be in a gang like you.

I know you don’t think you’re a role model. Still your record label, BET and urban and pop radio are constantly marketing your music to children between the ages of 10 and 14. When they play you Lollipop single on BET, the kids who watch you buy your album and mixtapes and get to hear all your Blood gang propaganda.

Hopefully, your time in jail will give you time to reflect about your actions. Gang violence is a big problem for young black males.  In L.A. two thirds of all youth killings are gang related. Gang members are 60 times more likely to be killed than non gang members.

Being in the Bloods might be cool for you, but for the thousands of kids in the hood who join, it is a deadly choice, that far to often leads them to jail or the morgue.

Please, for the sake of your impressionable fans and the image of African Americans across the world, stop promoting the Bloods. You are a very clever young man with more power than you may know.

Sincerely

Casey Gane-McCalla

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

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I never understood why Wayne & Birdman waited til they were millionaires to start claiming Bloods 5 years ago. If that isn't a joke I don't know what is