Exercise Your Creative Control

I would like to start this review with a bit of honesty – keeping it completely one hundred, as they say – I do not really understand the platform/content of the site I am about to review. Not all of it anyway. And more important, I don’t like some of it either. But what I do like, I love, and all of it is something that I appreciate and find refreshing. But I am getting ahead of myself, so let me start with the basics.

Creative Control is a website co-founded by music video directors Coodie and Chike, the creative minds behind Kanye West’s first video “Through the Wire” along with Erykah Badu’s controversial 2010 video “Window Seat.” The site is a part of the DD172’s portfolio, Damon Dash’s umbrella entertainment company. Read more

The Era of The Black Video Mixtape

I am a huge believer in independent black film and media, if for nothing else, because I think that it allows black folk to create media that speaks very specifically to our varied realities. At the moment, I feel like black filmmakers are on the cusp of a renaissance, in no small part due to the internet. Rather than wait for another studio to endorse and distribute our content Read more

Fiasco Against the Machine

In response to our friends at ICantBeFamous.com

SHORT VERSION:
Sadly, Lupe’s mainstream crossover will succeed mainly because anything promoted at a certain level will; e.g. Rebecca Black. On top of that he is actually talented, so the flash-in-the-pan pitfalls should be beyond his team’s concerns. Additionally, he has a legion of fans who essentially have liitle-to-no other choice; not a lot of emcees of his caliber for this generation. So though Atlantic Records is bafflingly horrible at business; Lasers will not usher in a new movement of commercial appeal AND talent. Atlantic’s turn at the helm did not fail. In fact, even if it had tanked, the label would blame Lupe. Fortunately for them, short of complete career suicide, nothing he did on/after this release would have caused its demise. Evident in the fact that he, hereto, has been highly antagonistic of the album and the process through which it came to be, yet Lasers continues to succeed.
The opposition makes sense though Read more

Mos Def signed with G.O.O.D. Music?!

A record number of people were gathered in D.C. and burst into exaltations of joy and merriment to welcome… oops wrong awesome moment.

Okay, I think we are all familiar with G.O.O.D. Music… now add Mos Def!!
I’ll give you a minute to collect the pieces of your cranium and recompose yourself because, like mine, your head might have just exploded. Take a few seconds to look for gray matter.

If you don’t know why you should be hopeful for the future of music consider the following. The three current stars of G.O.O.D. Music are Common, Kanye West and John Legend.

We would like to thank a YouTube patron fond of reflection for the following phrase that sums up the signing:

“Mos Def just signed to G.O.O.D. Music? They’re starting to be something like Young Money, except the rappers on G.O.O.D. Music can actually rap.” © iceberggrebeci

Source:Mos Def signs to G.O.O.D. Music

Shakespeare is Shakespeare is Shakespeare

Shakespeare is Shakespeare is Shakespeare

On the last day of its run this summer, I saw Othello at Shakespeare on the Common. The characters wore 1940s garb for no apparent reason, the backdrop was a metallic slab reminiscent of the Aggro Crag, and I’m pretty sure an understudy was on Iago duty, which is a shame since Iago is pretty much the only reason to like Othello. Instead of the devious, evil, unrepentant villain I love, the actor came off as, well, what he was: a nervous guy who didn’t quite remember all his lines and had to keep reminding himself to speak loud enough to be heard across the Common. Still, Shakespeare is Shakespeare and free is free.

For my own amusement, I made a list of the words that made me go “pffft, you made that up” (until shortly after intermission when I decided I’d need a more attentive ear and a lot more paper if I really wanted to keep up):

englut

slubber

satiety

disrelish

displant

quillet

engraft

mazard

infortune

insufflate

unswear

beshrew

direful

continuate

Despite my conviction at the time that Shakespeare just threw a prefix or suffix on a word whenever he needed another syllable for his iambic pentameter, turns out most of these actually are or were real words.
I also made a list of my rediscovered favorite Othello quotations:

“I am not what I am.” (I.i)

Because that’s so Iago.

“Your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.” (I.i)

Because, oh, that’s where that saying comes from.

“Men should be what they seem; / Or those that be not, would they might seem none!” (III.iii)

What can I say? I’m a seeming-versus-reality fan.

“O! beware, my lord, of jealousy; / It is the green-ey’d monster which doth mock / The meat it feeds on.” (III.iii)

Again, etymology.

“Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore, / Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof; / Or, by the worth of mine eternal soul, / Thou hadst been better have been born a dog / Than answer my wak’d wrath.” (III.iii)

Because angry Othello is not a man to be trifled with.

“Unkindness may do much, / And his unkindness may defeat my life / But never taint my love.” (IV.ii)

Because that’s so Desdemona.

“Demand me nothing: what you know, you know: / From this time forth I never will speak word.” (V.ii)

Because “What makes Iago evil? some people ask. I never ask.” (Joan Didion, Play It As It Lays)

“I kissed thee ere I killed thee, no way but this, / Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.” (V.ii)

Because everyone loves a little morbid romance. Right?

A Letter to Mad Mel Gibson

Dear Mel,

“You know you done f*cked up, right?” When you can’t even get a cameo in a farce, you know you’ve gone too far. That means you’ve officially fallen off of the movie level. Oh, sure you have some straight-to-DVD drops coming in the next year or more, but you have definitely maxed out your A-list credit. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Read more

Why Reading is Important: A Case Study

I know a lot of words. Really, I do. I write; I read; words are sort of my thing. My favorite game is Quiddler. There is nothing I love more than Jeopardy‘s “Crossword Clues Q” (or J or X or…) category. Sometimes I pick up Macbeth and start re-reading it, just for fun. Read more

Better Listen to Your Corner…

When are rappers going to stop attempting to sing their own hooks?

Dear Rappers,

1. How am I supposed to believe you are as rich as you say you are when you can’t afford a singer. Do-it-yourself projects never scream affluence. In fact the wealthiest people show off by doing as little for themselves as possible. Think Hakeem in Zamunda from Coming to America. Read more

Martial What?! I Know Martial Meditation!

I used to always think about how tragic it was that my generation never really had some revolutionary superstar martial artist that was featured on primetime television doing an interview on the philosophical aspects to martial arts.  Moreover, I would like to see something like that done on the topic of peace, tranquility, and Enlightenment as well.  I guess that’s why we document stuff and put it out on the web.  So people never really forget it.  Read more

Embedded (Current TV): Mos Def in Japan

Casa Bey!!

The Mighty Mos Def rocks Japan, tours the country, catches a Sumo tournament, rides the Bullet Train, shops the freshest fashion boutiques and stops in at a Tokyo Giants game.

Watch Mos Def aka Flaco Bey aka Black Danté perform hits from his latest album The Ecstatic as well as jams from previous LPs. As well, listen as he issues commentary on Music, Japan, Fashion, Hip-Hop Culture, the Black experience, History, Performance, etc. Read more

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