OpenEntrance - What’s Really Going OnWhat’s Really Going On

Rapper Twista, has been dropped from the lineup because of his “controversial lyrics,” the fast food giant said Monday. Twista was supposed to perform on a nationwide tour sposored by the hamburger chain.
The Chicago rapper is better known for his lightning-fast rap delivery than particularly raunchy content: His hits include “Slow Jamz,” with Kanye West and Jamie Foxx, and “Overnight Celebrity.” However, he does use explicit language and reference drugs in his some of his rhymes.

McDonald’s, which initially signed the rapper to perform in Chicago for its 10-city concert series, said it could no longer support Twista for the Aug. 7 performance. “Although we respect free speech and artistic expression, we do not condone or perpetuate derogatory language,” said spokesman William Whitman in a statement. “We want to ensure these free concerts are fun as well as appropriate for all of our customers.”

“They started hearing things … feeling like they were getting a little flak, and I felt like rather than stick by me and stick through it, they got scared,” he said. “I’ve been rapping the same way for 15 years. It only became a problem when Don Imus said something negative about black women and they needed a scapegoat.”

Twista said that typically, when he performs at events that are more mainstream and that attract kids, he cleans up his lyrics, and had intended to do so for the Chicago performance.

“I was actually going to have a school with a choir come sing the song ’Hope’ with me. So now … McDonald’s have to tell the kids that they can’t perform.”

This whole situation is BS to me; Twista can’t make any money because of this criticism from a few people who don’t have anything better to do. Mickeys D’s knew what they were getting into when they signed him up. I hope he sues them and gets all the money they promised him because they breached this contract; he needs to get his ‘new school hustle’ on.

Due to the disparities in the number of black men in college and also the increasing number of black men involved in negative activities, the Tom Joyner Foundation is offering one $1,500 scholarship each week to a male student at a HBCU selected as the college of the month for the “Tom Joyner Morning Show.”

National studies have shown that black men attending college is increasing (up 8% from 2002-05) in recent years, but still lags behind women. At this time, on average, the black male student enrollment at an HBCU is about 37 percent.

In an interview with BlackAmericaWeb.com, Thomas Joyner Jr. Head of the foundation stated  “We wanted to do something that directly helps encourage brothers to go school and also help keep them there,” Thomas Joyner Jr.

To be an eligible candidate for the scholarship, students must have a grade point average of at least 3.0, be a campus leader, be involved in the community and have a career goal to make a difference in the quality of life for his race, while helping others. 

This is a great idea and I hope our young brothers will take advantage of the opportunity. A lot of our ”fellas” are living for now (immediate gratification) and really don’t want to dedicate themselves to 1, 2, 3 or 4 years of college before living the American Dream. 

Gentlemen, college is more than a job at the “end of the tunnel.” The overall experience, enlightenment, well rounded world-view, various opportunities + the positive people you meet from all over the world is a life changing experience.  “Real Talk” as we say these days, I would travel in a time machine to live those 4 years again in a heartbeat!

Father Patrick Francis Healy, inaugurated as president of Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic University in America, and became the first Black to head a predominantly white university. Father Healy was also the first Black man to receive a Ph.D.

Also on this date:

1981 Attorney Arnette R. Hubbard installed as the first woman president of the National Bar Association.

2005 Black teen Anthony Walker was racially murdered in England with an Ax.

Women’s Health

A woman in her 20s needs about 1,000 mg of calcium a day. By her 30’s a woman’s bones stop growing, so it’s wise to build a reserve of bone and calcium that’ll be needed in the future. Exercise can help. Women in their 40’s can start to lose bone density. Dairy foods, leafy green vegetables, fish, and even non-dairy products that are fortified with calcium help to boost calcium-intake.

 When it’s all said and done you guys are the ones to blame.  When we look back at hip-hop as we knew it we’re gonna say, “man back in the day I remember…” I remember when songs we’re actually saying something over a good beat. I remember the party cuts, the street cuts, the social commentary, and the adult content cuts. We had a lil bit of everything back in the 80’s and early to mid 90’s. It was balanced and at it’s most creative point back then. 

  A change started happening during the early 90’s that led us to the explosion in the materialistic side of things. See gangsta replaced conscious, bling replaced street, gimmicks replaced talent, and Diddy was on every beat. We had to outshine, outdo, and outbling each other on a track and it led to a “gold rush” in hip-hop. With Diddy’s populartity and record label rising other labels, instead of trying to find another lane or theme, started signing artist who talked that talk or at least once they signed them influenced them to talk that bling stuff.  Yeah there were a few exceptions like Nas, The Fugees, and Wu-Tang to name a few who came out around the mid 90’s who didn’t follow that trend and were very successful but during the late 90’s the second golden age in hip-hop was over (the first golden age coming in ‘88).

  What followed was a whirlwind of excessive spending, beef, and stagnant lyrics. Now with any era there were bright spots during that time but they seemed to be few and far between. Money, cash, hoes was the motto and you were dope if you went platinum,  not if you spit nice lyrics but if you had at least a million people buying your cd. A media instigated beef caused people to choose sides of a coast while the heads of two lables and the older white men who bankrolled them benefited from it all. Some of the most influential and promising artist of our time died (Pac, Pun, and Big) and we continued to pour the Cristal. The emphasis of lyrics and the art of mc’in was pushed aside if you wanted to blow. We became conditioned to hear that materialistic music and didn’t care that our condition as a culture was deteriorating before our eyes. New York’s crown began to rust and besides Snoop the west had no one else stepping to the plate on a national level to tell their story.

  Master P and Cash Money came and took it to the South and supplied the nation with club music and more of that material world that most of us would never experience. We began to see that it was more than just Outkast down there. Of course Geto Boys, UGK, and 8-Ball & MJG were the godfathers but none of those groups captured the ears of the entire country during the late 90’s. Once again we have an explosion of artist on the scene that were southern fried and gave you a different flavor in hip-hop.

  In the 2000’s we had so-called kings pop up and vie for the throne in New York and slowly but surely the break-up of two of the South’s most powerful and influential groups (Cash Money & No Limit) began. Our mindset was solidified now, we valued a hook and a good beat over a good beat with meaningful lyrics. Our past was buried and it was all about gettin’ money and screw the world let me get mine first. Certain artist and groups became irrelevant because they didn’t make you dance they made you think.

  The south was reinvented in the form of crunk and snap music and once again we had an explosion of hook heavy music that still exist today. It’s like we reinvented the hokey pokey with the music that’s out now. So much has changed about mainstream hip-hop that some artist lament the lack of creativity and lyrics. Andre 3 stacks amongst others stepped away from rap because of this turn for the worst. Rock fans, Country fans, and real R& B fans young and old can quote older songs before and during their time. I can guarantee you most of these young kids out there don’t even know who Common is and can’t quote a Common line let alone a Big Daddy Kane lyric or Fugees lyric. Why is that? Is it because we’re conditioned to listen to simple minded music that consist of a Casio keyboard bassline, and a drum beat a 5 year old could make? See I should make a song of the ABC’s do a dance and add some snaps and then pray and hope that Jay-Z sees.  I love to hear good music and I don’t mind dancing in the club but does all the hip-hop we hear have to come with a dance or talk about meaningless stuff everytime? Is hip-hop that shallow that radios can’t find a variety of songs to put out on the airwaves? Why did we let it get to this? Hip-hop aint dead but it feels like it’s in a coma sometimes.

  I want to leave you today with this thought: If you take a newborn elephant, tie it to a pole, mistreat it yet give it just enough food to survive, and put up a 6-foot fence all around it it will never leave that yard…that’s hip-hop…matter of fact that’s black people.      

Common’s seventh album Finding Forever will hit stores today. It’s being released on G.O.O.D Music/Geffen Records and like Be, Common’s Album in ’05, Finding Forever is primarily produced by Kanye West.

Along with Kanye, other featured guests are D’Angelo, Dwele, Bilal, Lily Allen and Will.i.am. Common is one of the few brothers in the game still spittin’ hot lyrics. In fact, he was #9 on MTV’s 10 Hottest MCs In The Game…yeah I know he should probably be top 5, but that discussion is for a different post.

And remember:

LET’S CONTINUE TO SUPPORT OUR BLACK ARTIST!!!!!