I Think Obama Can Win Too

As I've stated before. I'm a huge fan of SOHH. I'm loving the fact that they have a wide range of blogs discussing different topics. My favorite now is Biko's HH4PREZ blog where he's covering politics from the Hip-Hop side of things. First off congratulations homey on making it out to Denver and covering the festivities. A job I wish I could have had as me & the wife would have loved to have gone.

In Biko's newest post he list 5 things he believes will help Obama on to victory that first Tuesday of November. While I agree with you Biko on a lot of stuff in your previous post, I've got a few things that I gotta talk out with your list.

#1 He Needs to Keep Working with Clintons - True

You won't get an argument from me. What REALLY needs to happen, besides campaigning in the battleground states, is the Clintons need to deliver Arkansas. While it's only worth 6 EV, it's 6 EV that's taken away from Sen. McCain. If Bill & Hillary can pull that off, they'll really restore their standing in the party.

#2 Stops Pissing Off Veteran Black Leaders - False

Here's where we get some static. I don't know if you know this but Jesse Jackson & Tavis Smiley are the ONLY Black leaders that really went off on Obama (Bob Johnson doesn't count); and both of them only did it for personal reasons. Jesse was mad that Obama pretty much told the Black community what we needed to hear and is getting shine from it while Jesse isn't getting any play while Tavis just felt slighted because Obama didn't attend. James Clyburn, John Lewis, Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton and the rest have ALL voice their support for Obama. Farrakhan even forgave and embraced Obama after Obama was FORCED to rebuke him. The Congressional Black Caucus never felt slighted by Obama and are all now behind him 100%, at least in public. The CBC, if they do indeed feel slighted, need to get over it and work hard for this man, simply because he's for ALL Americans, not just specifically for the Black community.

#3 Embrace Hip-Hop Culture But Not Get Caught in the Fu*ckery - Plausible

Now this is indeed a rock & a hard place, but it's a rock & a hard place that Obama need not be. If any one puts him there, IT WILL BE US. We as Black folk CANNOT expect Obama to fully embrace Hip-Hop because we KNOW for certain how that will look. If WE force Obama to address his lackluster support for Hip-Hop WE doom him. Not only that, but Black folk need to get off that BS about not voting for him because he doesn't voice his liking for Hip-Hop for 2 reasons: 1. He's already said he listens to Jay-Z and Luda and 2. Black folk need to be looking at his policies not his playlist. Obama need not ever mention Hip-Hop again unless he chooses to because it shouldn't even be an issue.

Obama has plenty of Hip-Hop advocates. In fact, Hip-Hop has been told to tone down it's support for Obama before we scare off the working class White vote. People like Jeezy, Luda, Jay-Z, T.I., Kanye, Mos Def, Talib Kweli and plenty others have been putting his name in their raps for a minute now. It's Black radio and the listeners' faults if their not hearing it.

#4 Stop Hiring Outsiders to Organize Urban Communities - False

Do you know why the campaign isn't hiring leaders from local urban communities? Because they aren't showing that much interest. If local leaders are really, and I mean REALLY, that hype and eager to go help and canvas for the Obama campaign, they need to call in and let them know. The "outsiders" you call them are the super excited Democrat activist who are eager to go to every corner of every neighborhood and talk to every citizen in them about supporting Obama. Local urban leaders cannot be so full of themselves as to just sit on their hands and wait for the call because it's not coming. If they really want to fight for Obama then they've got to git up, git out and git something, word to Outkast & Goodie. You always have to reach for the brass ring...

#5 Obama Needs To Read This Blog - Plausible

While I do think it's a great blog, Biko, it's a little too urban centric for Obama's platform.

You, I and a great deal of folks desire to see Obama in the White House. We just have to make sure that we as Black folk keep those chips off of our shoulders and realize that we as a race are not #1 on his list, but we as Americans are.

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Flash Dance

One thing you may not know about me is I have a job. This job has nothing to do with politics, music or anything that really makes the news; but in my spare time at this job, I write for yet another blog. So without further ado:

Sprint to AT&T: Welcome to the Party!

So, for the seven folks out there who have NOT already upgraded their AT&T Tilt to Windows Mobile 6.1 through other means, your day has come. AT&T and HTC (you guys STILL haven’t sent me my HTC Touch Pro [or should I call it the AT&T Fuze?] yet!!!!) have teamed up to bring you the official upgrade. You can grab yours from the official download page here.

What does the update get you? Well I’m glad I asked...

Read The Rest By Clicking Here.

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Guest blog: Stan Gable speaks

From time to time, I'm going to have other folks get in on the fun over here at my little operation. The first one to jump in is my good friend and fellow politico Scrapp aka Stan Gable aka The Onion (trust me, if you see him in Halo 1, 2 or 3, he'll make you cry). Here he's taking on what was written in this MSNBC First Read quicky (click here) about the die-hard PUMA Sen. Hillary Clinton supporters.

Without further ado, get'em Young Scrapper:

I don't understand what Clinton's supporters problems are. As I see it, she lost the nomination because she wasn't prepared for a fight, and took for granted the power of Obamas' message. She thought she had it locked, but she got rocked. That's gotta be frustrating for her and her supporters, but that's what happened. Last night Clinton put the party first, and asked her supporters to do the same. Wake up people, stop acting stupid!! How am I 25 years old and I understand the situation, but older Americans can't get it together? If you're willing to hand the election to the Republicans because you're candidate didn't make it, then you are a misguided and blinded by your own selfishness. And if you're willing to vote for McCain against your own ideals and beliefs, then you should have been supporting him the whole time, because all ideals you claim to hold are nothin but a lie.

If Barack hadn't secured the nomination, sure I would be disappointed. But not to the point where I'd shun the prospects for a different direction of America. If you were truly upset about the way the country has been run the last 8 years, there's no way you should be willing to suffer through another 4 under the Republican umbrella...thats just purely illogical, and you know it. If you don't like the candidate, then you don't have to vote. Its that simple, don't defect and increase the oppositions chances.

Act like you're informed of the consequences of your decision in November. But if you won't listen to the candidate you supported, Sen. Clinton, then who will you listen to? Thats like biting the hand that feeds you...get it together and support your party!

Stan Gable --> out.

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M.O.mentum

Good Tuesday morning to all. As usual, let's dive right in the deep end.

Here's Michelle Obama's speech to the world last night.



So where's my outrage? As usual it lies with the opinion of "critics" and their manufactured criticism.

Now with ANYTHING there are going to be critics so of course as my wife and I watched Mrs. O's speech we KNEW that there was going to be something the critics would be able to nitpick at even after all her logic & her theory, word to Lauryn Hill.

So now the main criticism is that the first night of the DemCon was a wasted opportunity; that the left should have come out of their corner breathing fire and spraying bullets 1930's gangster style at John McCain's general direction without regard for innocent GOP bystanders and dance upon the remains. Bella & I saw this mentioned constantly last night on all 3 major news networks, this morning and now I'm reading it in various comments on various political sites.

Here's the problem, these so called critics will NEVER be satisfied. For one, Nancy Pelosi did (along with starting a small chant) send some small darts with her "John McCain is wrong" warm up but the night was NOT for that and secondly, does Linkin Park start their concerts with "Points of Authority"? Is ComicCon's first major night where Marvel & DC revel all of their big secrets? Does the NBA's all-star weekend start with the dunk contest? No, no and if the NBA was smart they would but no.

The first night of DemCon was set to ease folks into being riled up. A LOT of energy is going to be spent over the next 3 days attacking McCain & the GOP along with officially declaring Barack Obama the Dem nominee. The first night was also set for "re-introducing Barack & Michelle Obama", something you critics said NEEDED to be done!

If Michelle's speech did not cover what she covered and instead attacked McCain, you critics would have said "That was ok, but we still don't really know her. We don't know if the voters are comfortable enough to have her in the White House," not to mention I'm sure a few fruits out there would have further pushed the "angry Black woman" rhetoric.

Look, I understand talking heads are talking because they get paid to, that's fine with me (I wish I could get paid for it, trust me), but if these same critics & political pundits wouldn't have stoked the false flames of an anti-American Michelle Obama, maybe just maybe, she wouldn't have had to do what she did last night.

But then again, maybe her speech has finally changed the narrative about her and the Dems can finally move forward without the unquestioning MSM holding them back.

For now, let's sit back and watch what the left has in store for tonight. I'll tell you this though, my 1 faithful reader, the attacks will come tonight and the critics will be pushing some ridiculous manufactured criticism tomorrow.

I'll leave you with a few pieces from a world renown musical genius Mr. Stevie Wonder. Why? To educate the young folks as to where Mrs. Obama drew her entrance and exit music. Enjoy...

Stevie Wonder - I Was Made To Love Her (opening music)
http://sharebee.com/c3630d47


Stevie Wonder - Isn't She Lovely (closing music)
http://sharebee.com/9b68f73a

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Who Killed It?

I am a fan of SOHH. I've been reading it since I discovered back around 1999/2000 or so. I have the RSS feed linked to my Outlook box at work so I can take a gander at Hip-Hop news and blog entries without losing that much productivity. So when the latest blog entry from Flx for the southern focused Dirty Blog hit my feed lines about his take on hip-hop being alive, his writing sparked something in me to respond. Flx, I understand what you're saying but I must respectfully disagree. I'm not going to go into this generally, just a point by point rebuttal is all.

The argument, primarily started by Nas a couple years ago, is hip-hop is dead vs hip-hop is alive & thriving. The back & forth to this argument has caused beefs, heated debates and kurfuffles but it seems like each side holds steady to their beliefs while not trying to understand the other side.

Let me put this bluntly, Hip-Hop, in it's truest form and by pure definition is DEAD.. Now why do I say that? Because the term Hip-Hop refers to a culture that houses 4 elements (KRS-One would say 5, but let's stick with the classic definition). 2 of those elements are on life-support and the last two have, in the overall sense, transformed into an unrecognizable forms of themselves, would you not agree Flx? Sales matter now MORE THAN EVER and there is hardly ANY respect for the art. When ringtone sales sparks more discussion then what the artist says on the song made into a ringtone, something's wrong.

First off, pull any young bul whippin his mama's car banging the latest Lil Wayne he downloaded off of one of the New Music Cartel's sites and ask him, "What are the 4 elements of Hip-Hop". I'll put money down and say he can't name them, I'll double down and say not even 2. It's because of this the fundamentals of the culture are thrown out of wack. Jazz may not be as strong of a genre as it was before the 80s/90s but the fundamentals are still there, same with Rock (although they'd might have a similar argument to this one with the rise of EMO music), same with Lo-Fi, same with Techno, etc.

You say there is more variety than ever. On a certain level you're right, but overall, I disagree. As SOON as some rapper finds a tiny iota of success you have 15 rappers out doing the same thing and that fad FLOODS the airwaves (radio, tv, youtube, etc). So as soon as we get something thats different, the climate is such that we have copycats immediately and it becomes a fad and the variety disappears.

Soulja Boy. Here's where I'd say a few southern cats get irked because they don't understand the criticisms leveraged at him. No, it is NOT Soulja Boy's fault for the downfall of Hip-Hop (I'll save who I blame for another day), BUT Soulja is simply the poster boy for everything wrong with the culture and, honestly & unfortunately, there's no one else to blame at this time.

And do me a favor, DO NOT compare "Yahh" to "Parent's Just Don't Understand". One has situations that kids today may/may not still be able to relate to, the other is complete nonsensical gibberish, although hilarious. Mims said it best and Soulja followed it, "I can make a mill saying nothing on the beat". Soulja Boy has done nothing to broaden the genre. He's only created a new fad for new dudes to run with until they run it into the ground.

The underground has and will always thrive, no matter how for under the ground it keeps getting pushed. So no argument there. As far as independence, I wouldn't call it a trend that Slim Thug is starting. I'd say Rawkus, Landspeed, Stones Throw and the current king Koch are good examples of independence that can go right (Koch, Stones Throw) and when it can nose dive (Rawkus, Landspeed).

I think I'm rambling now so I'll end this entry with this: Hip-Hop is either dead or dying, but Rapping IS doing fine and the business of rapping is better than ever.

I'll leave you all with the brilliant "Who" by Joe Budden.

100


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Property Tax

Yea, it's my first official post but I'm going in. Things are getting too hilarious now.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own. (c) Politico.com

So here's the question, and it's two fold: Does McCain have that many houses with his wife that he can't count them all off the top of his head, or is his oldness getting in the way and he truly cannot remember how many? Yup, the ole "are you still beating your wife?" trick question comes in here.

I can guarantee you, my 1 reader, that MOST people know exactly how many properties they own. Ask anyone on the street, they'll say 1, maybe 2. If you happen to talk to someone who's doing a bit better, they may say 3, maybe 4. Someone who's serious about property might say they have a duplex and some condos; and if TV has served me right, rich people love bragging about their "property in Venice and another in the Florida Keys".

The point is, for McCain to gaffe it up on a question like this, the Obama campaign needs desperately to take this and use it to obliterate ALL of McCain's "I'm just a regular guy like you" standings while simultaneously highlighting his modest 1 house and the fact that him & his wife just paid off their college loans. It probably won't do that much to chip away at the "elitist" persona that Hillary Clinton placed on him (thanks a lot Hil) but it's a definite strong start.

But here's what kills me about politics and the general IQ of this country. When one man, who's rich and has a super rich wife, calls another man, who is modestly rich, elitist, and people believe it, something's wrong. Every single one of you non-politicians out there who follow the party line and repeat talking points like parrots need to have lobotomies.

There should be a verbal test for anybody who wants to register to vote so that ridiculous crap like this or Obama being painted as an "elitist liberal" and NOT either men's policies does not persuade a person to vote one way or the other.

Told you I was going in...

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Out of Control

Ok, so the US seems to be going out of control with the US presidential race, the rise of gossip and star obsession, the decline of intelligence and terrible hip-hop continuing to dominate urban radio. I've always had a lot to say on certain subjects (as my wife and fellow blogger would tell you) so I need somewhere tangible to throw these thoughts, interesting articles and random reviews to the masses.

Stay tuned