The first time I met Harlemite rapper, producer, filmmaker, and actor Mtume Gant aka Core Rhythm, was in our Harlem Renaissance class at SUNY Purchase College. Gant usually had the most to say when it came to class discussions about our reading assignments. He was so vocal and passionate that I felt intimidated to raise my hand. Thoughtful, and progressive ideas effortlessly sprung off his tongue. There were few places where our opinions diverged. Most times, I was envious of …
Tag: writing
For LA Weekly I wrote an article about rapper and songwriter Gizzle. Also, I talked to rapper and producer The Koreatown Oddity. Check Gizzle’s EP 7 Days In Atlanta, shorty got bars. She’s like the Dolly Parton of rap, meaning, she pens hella songs, or in this case, raps for a lot of popular rappers. TKO was a humble cat who happens to be a multi-talented hardworking artist. Stones Throw Records just dropped his album Finna Be Past Tense. His Driving While Black flick was …
Okayplayer just posted, “Rottweiler Choir” a poem by the great poet Saul Williams, written for Amiri Baraka’s funeral. Williams performed it at the funeral in honor of a soldier that remains unbreakable, not passed, but transformed…in a perpetual state of forever. Read below. This NGH died for something.i I don’t go for old age. I don’t go for disease. I say murder. Which poets die of natural causes? Which poems kill? I saw the rifles pointed. Jesse Jackson with that blood on …
The Missed-Adventures of Br’er Rabbit and Br’er Death in the Land of Shadows is the latest solo show from artist Christopher Burch. The exhibition is part of Burch’s continuing series about Br’er Rabbit, a classic American figure birthed by slavery. Held at Aggregate Space, The Missed-Adventures instillation includes found objects, video, drawings and a floor-to-ceiling mural. Burch described it as a “giant graphic novel” that’s “confrontational” and storied. Br’er Rabbit, also known as the trickster, was a clever amoral rabbit …
Shabazz Palaces Black Up Sub Pop: 2011 “I ain’t show off/I just showed up,” Palaceer Lazaro spits on “Free Press and Curl,” the first jam off Shabazz Palaces’ debut album, Black Up (Sub Pop). Palaceer aka Ishmael Butler, better known as Butterfly, was a member of the early 90’s trioDigable Planets, a group that helped solidify the fusion of jazz and hip-hop. The Planets broke up after two slept-on releases. Butterfly traded in his bohemian pop appeal and retro grooves to form Cherrywine. Their …
Socials