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	<title>Hip Hop vs America &#124; BET.com &#187; Hip Hop Vs. America</title>
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	<link>http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa</link>
	<description>Dissecting the issues that affect the state of our music</description>
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		<title>Could Eminem Really Be Obsessed?</title>
		<link>http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/could-eminem-really-be-obsessed/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/could-eminem-really-be-obsessed/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:05:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kim Osorio</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hip Hop Vs. America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eminem]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mariah Carey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obsessed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Warning]]></category>

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The Eminem vs. Mariah feud just won&#8217;t die. In the latest installment in this highly unnecessary battle, Em releases a diss record entitled &#8220;The Warning&#8221; in which he spews hate toward the R&#38;B superstar for what seemed to be her poking fun at [...]]]></description>
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The Eminem vs. Mariah feud just won&#8217;t die. In the latest installment in this highly unnecessary battle, Em releases a diss record entitled &#8220;The Warning&#8221; in which he spews hate toward the R&amp;B superstar for what seemed to be her poking fun at him in her latest video &#8220;Obsessed.&#8221;  It makes me wonder just how long this back and forth thing can actually last. The funny thing is that Mariah, in her video and in interviews, won&#8217;t address Eminem by name or admit that she is poking fun at him in her video &#8220;Obsessed&#8221; (I think it&#8217;s pretty obvious). Still, for some odd reason, Eminem is hell bent on letting everyone know that there was SOMETHING that happened between the two of them, at some point in time (regardless of whether it was a million years ago).</p>
<p><span id="more-181"></span></p>
<p>If you ask me, I think it&#8217;s a bit much to continuously go through trying to prove that you slept with someone. Either Eminem is a skeleton in Mariah&#8217;s closet that she doesn&#8217;t want to come out or maybe he was truly a stalker that can&#8217;t seem to get over the fact that nothing happened between them. At the end of the day, she denies it and he says it happened. It&#8217;s one person&#8217;s word against the other. You can choose who you want to believe or not, but really the issue shouldn&#8217;t still be going on, and I&#8217;m sorry that I think Eminem is the one who seems to be draggin&#8217; it out for some sort of validation.</p>
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<p>Yes, I know she clowned him in the video. But he started with the song on his album, so there was provocation. Remember, it wasn&#8217;t new news, but rather an old issue that he can&#8217;t seem to let go. I just think that this recent dis song &#8220;The Warning,&#8221; which threatens to release photographs is way too much effort on Eminem&#8217;s part. If he was telling the truth about their relationship, then so what. Move on. Mariah is happily married, and Eminem seems to have a problem with women. So why does he feel the need to go there with her, unless he really is obsessed?</p>
<p>KIM OSORIO</p>
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		<slash:comments>120</slash:comments>
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		<title>Paul Wall Says Hip-Hop Artists Need To Work Harder</title>
		<link>http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/paul-wall-says-hip-hop-artists-need-to-work-harder/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/paul-wall-says-hip-hop-artists-need-to-work-harder/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:34:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kim Osorio</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hip Hop Vs. America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paul  Wall]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[
After watching the Grammys, it was great to see Lil&#8217; Wayne come home with awards. To see hip-hop win these awards, it&#8217;s a great thing. Hip-hop is the #1 form of entertainment. Every other form of entertainment takes something from hip-hop, whether it&#8217;s movies, sports, wrestling. Hip-hop just stays growing bigger and bigger. But in [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/paulwall_blog2.JPG" title="paulwall_blog2.JPG"><img src="http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/paulwall_blog2.JPG" alt="paulwall_blog2.JPG" /></a></p>
<p>After watching the Grammys, it was great to see Lil&#8217; Wayne come home with awards. To see hip-hop win these awards, it&#8217;s a great thing. Hip-hop is the #1 form of entertainment. Every other form of entertainment takes something from hip-hop, whether it&#8217;s movies, sports, wrestling. Hip-hop just stays growing bigger and bigger. But in America, we take it for granted. <span id="more-110"></span>Overseas, they study hip-hop and love hip-hop, and they know it like we know sports. In sports, we know the play by play, the scores of all the games, and that&#8217;s how these kids overseas know us here in hip-hop. They really study hip-hop, and that makes me feel like we take it for granted. To us, it&#8217;s just music and entertainment.</p>
<p>When I see hip-hop up there collaborating with all the other genres of music, I think it&#8217;s a little bit of a give and take. Everybody&#8217;s benefitting. When T.I. and Justin Timberlake perform together, I don&#8217;t think T.I. has to comprise who he is to do a song with a Justin Timberlake. I think it&#8217;s a hell of a song. And I think T.I. is gettin&#8217; a lot of exposure to Justin Timberlake&#8217;s fans as well as Justin being exposed to T.I. fans. JT is stepping out of that bubblegum pop role. He&#8217;s a hip-hop artist. He&#8217;s hip-hop and R&amp;B, not the same N&#8217;Sync artist anymore. In hip-hop, as a rapper, I&#8217;ve been on tours and been on the road with rappers, but when I went on the road with Fall Out Boy, it was a completely different working atmosphere. The way they handled their merch, you don&#8217;t see that on a lot of hip-hop tours. Like, when I went on tour with Tech 9, I learned a lot. As a whole, we need to step it up and get that merch money. Sometimes you have a hit song, but you got to cultivate those fans in order to turn hip-hop into a career. A lot of hip-hop artists get conceited and get a big head. When I was with Fall Out Boy, I saw how they really just cultivated their fans. We got to step it up with our merchandising. When&#8217;s the last time you went to a hip-hop show and you bought bobbleheads and Frisbees? I think when you out of sight, you out of mind. You gotta stay relevant in fan&#8217;s life. Even if you don&#8217;t have a song out. Snoop don&#8217;t have a song out right now, but he got one of the most watched shows on TV.</p>
<p>I think with hip-hop there&#8217;s so much stereotypes that we put out on ourselves. We have an image that we have to live up to. We should just go out and be ourselves and just try to grind and make it to the top, &#8217;cause everybody is taking from hip-hop. When was the last time we had a president that listened to hip-hop?? I think sometimes friendly competition is good, but we get so caught up with competing with each other, we fail to realize this really ain&#8217;t a competition. In the end, that&#8217;s gonna lead to your downfall. You don&#8217;t sell records by being better than the next person. Some artists do feed off their competition and it helps them to become better. But me, personally, I don&#8217;t thrive off competition, that will distract me more than anything.  My mind is on getting paid, putting out good music, and keeping my fans happy.</p>
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		<slash:comments>115</slash:comments>
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		<title>An Open Letter To The Brothers By Vinnie of Naughty By Nature</title>
		<link>http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/an-open-letter-to-the-brothers-by-vinnie-of-naughty-by-nature/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/an-open-letter-to-the-brothers-by-vinnie-of-naughty-by-nature/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:46:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kim Osorio</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hip Hop Vs. America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Naughty By Nature]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[O.P.P.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vinnie Brown]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/an-open-letter-to-the-brothers-by-vinnie-of-naughty-by-nature/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
 

It&#8217;s really time to step up and grow up. We have the first black (family)  in the white house. Let it be the example of what&#8217;s to come. Our hoods are under seige. 
The Black man is getting sucked up in a horrible vacuum. Our youth are dying too young and being incarcerated for life [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="line-height: normal; font-family: Times" class="Apple-style-span"></span><span style="line-height: normal; font-family: Times" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="border-collapse: collapse" class="Apple-style-span"></span><span style="border-collapse: collapse" class="Apple-style-span"></span></span><span style="line-height: normal; font-family: Times" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="border-collapse: collapse" class="Apple-style-span"></span></span><span style="line-height: normal; font-family: Times" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="border-collapse: collapse" class="Apple-style-span"></span></span><span style="line-height: normal; font-family: Times" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="border-collapse: collapse" class="Apple-style-span"></p>
<p style="line-height: 20pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: normal" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="line-height: 26px" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: #000000" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: #0000ee; line-height: normal; text-decoration: underline" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: #000000" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 21px; line-height: 26px; font-family: Georgia" class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/vinnie.JPG" title="vinnie.JPG"><img src="http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/vinnie.JPG" alt="vinnie.JPG" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Georgia"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Georgia"></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Georgia"></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia">It&#8217;s really time to step up and grow up. We have the first black (family)  in the white house. Let it be the example of what&#8217;s to come. Our hoods are under seige. </span></span></font></p>
<p><font size="3"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia"><span id="more-105"></span>The Black man is getting sucked up in a horrible vacuum. Our youth are dying too young and being incarcerated for life for mostly non-violent crimes. African-Americans are no longer the minority. Our Hispanic brothers and sisters are the new minority. The Black man must step up for self preservation or Barack Obama&#8217;s win will only be a stepping stone for the &#8220;New&#8221; minority to succeed in politics (there&#8217;s nothing wrong with that). </span></span></font></p>
<p><font size="3"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia">The Black man is becoming extinct. I see it every day in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New Jersey</st1:place></st1:state>. There aren&#8217;t many father figures in the &#8216;hood, also there is no lineage between our 70 thru 20 yr-old Black men. Our men conceive kids with women, but there&#8217;s no follow up in raising the child. Our youth are running around the hoods of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> like packs of wild dogs. Most of their fathers are either dead or serving most of their lives in jail.</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia"><u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></font><span style="font-family: Georgia"><o:p><font size="3"> </font></o:p></span><font size="3"><span style="font-family: Georgia">Now it&#8217;s time for the Black men who have suceeded against the odds to adopt their local neighborhoods and join forces with other Black males. </span></font><font size="3"><span style="font-family: Georgia">I&#8217;ll use this analogy: you and your spouse are homeowners with three children. You work every day and pay all the bills in the house. Would you let your children run rampant in your household? That&#8217;s whats going down in our neighborhoods. We need more &#8220;James Evans&#8221; from Good Times role models. If we had more fathers like him, our neighborhoods would be better off. Imagine a community of concerned, educated, professional fathers with the James Evans demeanor. We would police our own neighborhoods and account for our own children. Once they are accounted for, we adopt the stray kids and work with their guardians to keep them in line.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia"><o:p></o:p></span></font><span style="font-family: Georgia"><font size="3">It&#8217;s time for hip-hop to grow up as well. Hip-Hop has grown past the initial monetary rewards. It&#8217;s time to stop giving our money back to &#8220;the man&#8221; and re-invest in our communities, namely developing housing. The price of a Bentley or Ferrari could buy you half a city block to further develop. The big, unecessary mansion that will get foreclosed on within 10 yrs could buy you an apartment building so you could develop affordable housing for the people of the &#8216;hood we so-call &#8220;Love&#8221; so much. Not only that, the residual income will have you set for life and we begin to develop generational wealth. Hip-Hop has earned and generated enough money to develop a significant portion of under developed neighborhoods. Any local politician would love to get distressed properties back on the tax roles. From there, we could continue to educate our children from a decent housing environment.</font></span><span style="font-family: Georgia"><font size="3"><o:p></o:p></font></span><font size="3"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia">Black man, we have to stop &#8220;One Upping&#8221; each other. We have so many successful Black males who&#8217;s egos won&#8217;t let them strengthen the brotherhood that should be. Our forefathers of the Civil Rights movement had far less financial resources than we have and did a much better job in organizing, especially for political growth. I&#8217;m calling on other Black male professionals in the world of finance, medicine, law, etc. to come back to the &#8216;hood and reinvest time and money in the futures of our young brothers who are getting left behind.</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia"><o:p></o:p></span></font><span style="font-family: Georgia"><font size="3">We need more family role models like the Obamas so our young men understand what it is to be a one woman-man and lead by example. Although it was written by us as teenagers, I totally understand the effects of a song like O.P.P. It encourages people to not be committed to one person and those habits could translate across different aspects of one&#8217;s life. Our young men need to understand the full family structure is the only thing that will preserve our neighborhoods, cultures and the Black man himself. I pray that Jay-Z and Beyonce&#8217;s marriage lasts and they have a beautiful family. They will be our &#8220;hood&#8221; role model of a family. Once our entertainers and athletes show it&#8217;s okay to have one wife and a family, others will be eager to follow suit.<o:p></o:p></font></span><span style="font-family: Georgia"><font size="3">I&#8217;m starting in my own neighborhood. We are working with our local city council and mayor&#8217;s office and are challenging government, law enforcement, and the education system as well as all willing and able Black men of all ages to step up and form a fraternity of preservation for our black youth. I love my black brothers and &#8220;We&#8221; including myself have been selfish enough. It&#8217;s time to give back to our sisters and children and &#8220;put in real work&#8221; in our neighborhoods.</font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia"></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia"><font size="3">Peace, </font></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Georgia"><font size="3"><o:p></o:p></font></span><strong><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia"><font size="3">Vinnie Brown<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></font></span></span> </strong></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia"><font size="3"><strong>Naughty By Nature</strong> </font></span></span></p>
<p></span></span></span></p>
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		<slash:comments>75</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Murphy Lee: Blog #2</title>
		<link>http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/murphy-lee-blog-2/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/murphy-lee-blog-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:59:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kim Osorio</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hip Hop Vs. America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Murphy Lee]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[ 
I voted&#8230;and mine count&#8230;.what about yours? I felt like a proud Black man. Like I was a part of the 60&#8217;s when they were fighting for these rights. If Obama wins lose or draw, we still won today. We win.
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/murphylee1.jpg" title="murphylee1.jpg"><img src="http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/murphylee1.jpg" alt="murphylee1.jpg" /></a> </p>
<p>I voted&#8230;and mine count&#8230;.what about yours? I felt like a proud Black man. Like I was a part of the 60&#8217;s when they were fighting for these rights. If Obama wins lose or draw, we still won today. We win.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>1502</slash:comments>
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		<title>Dr. Todd Boyd: It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back</title>
		<link>http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/it-takes-a-nation-of-millions-to-hold-us-back/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/it-takes-a-nation-of-millions-to-hold-us-back/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:36:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kim Osorio</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hip Hop Vs. America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dr. Todd Boyd]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[
The day of reckoning has arrived! Who will shed tears of joy and who will shed tears of pain?
After the longest presidential election campaign ever, we have finally reached
the day of reckoning.  Election Day 2008 seemed liked it would never get here. 
But here we are, at the end of the road.  After almost two years [...]]]></description>
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The day of reckoning has arrived! Who will shed tears of joy and who will shed tears of pain?<span id="more-91"></span><br />
After the longest presidential election campaign ever, we have finally reached<br />
the day of reckoning.  Election Day 2008 seemed liked it would never get here. <br />
But here we are, at the end of the road.  After almost two years of politickin’,<br />
it has come down to one day for all the marbles.  Winner take all, loser go<br />
home.  It’s all over but the cryin’ now. </p>
<p>The question is, who will be shedding tears? Will they be tears of joy or tears<br />
of pain? Polls numbers and predictions are one thing.  The final vote count is<br />
another. What is that line about not counting your organic free range chickens<br />
before they hatch? It’s too early to start celebrating just yet.  There’s still<br />
time on the clock.  And like Lenny Kravitz once said, “it ain’t over til it’s<br />
over.” </p>
<p>The historic nature of this campaign promises to delivery a historic choice for<br />
president.  I’ll believe it when I see it.  I wouldn’t want to celebrate a<br />
touchdown that eventually gets called back.  You feel me?  After almost two<br />
years of campaigning, I can wait one more day. </p>
<p>On July 2, 1964, some forty-four years and four months ago, the Civil Rights Act<br />
was signed into law.  I had been born only three months before that.  Barack<br />
Obama was only three years old at the time.  In a span of less than fifty years,<br />
we have gone from the signing of this historic legislation to being on the verge<br />
of electing this nation’s first African American president.   That’s major.  <br />
But it’ll be even more major, if you will, when all the votes are tallied up and<br />
people begin referring to Barack Obama as “President-Elect” Barack Obama. </p>
<p>You get my drift, right?  There’s a time for voting and then, perhaps, there’s a<br />
time for celebrating.  Celebrating before the game is over is like going to the<br />
dealership, picking out your dream car, test-driving this dream car by riding<br />
through the neighborhood in it for all to see, and then getting turned down for<br />
bad credit.  In other words, when you celebrate prematurely, you set yourself up<br />
to get clowned. </p>
<p>If I wake up tomorrow morning and they are saying President Elect Barack Obama,<br />
then I’ll be as happy as a runaway slave. “It’s a celebration, bitches!” (And<br />
you thought Kevin Garnett’s celebration after winning the NBA title back in June<br />
was off tha chain? Just wait…) But today is about being focused, closing the<br />
deal, and patiently awaiting the results as they come in. </p>
<p>In spite of my caution though, I’m chill, with a smile on my face.  Things look<br />
good.  History looks like it’s about to turn a new page.  For the first time<br />
ever, there could soon be a hot comb in the White House. </p>
<p>Hopefully, there will be no shenanigans this time around.   Though you can’t<br />
stand in the way of history, some idiots may still try to.  Haters, fall back.<br />
Move Mac, get out the way! Punks jump up to get beat down! Beat down by the<br />
inevitability that today’s election promises to bring, that is. </p>
<p>We’ve waited this long, so a few more hours won’t hurt.  Just be cool, the wait<br />
is almost over.  As the late Los Angeles Lakers’ Hall of Fame announcer Chick<br />
Hearn would say, “The game&#8217;s in the refrigerator. The door&#8217;s closed, the light&#8217;s<br />
out, the eggs are cooling, the butter&#8217;s getting hard, and the Jell-O&#8217;s<br />
jiggling.&#8221;</p>
<p>Peace,<br />
The Good Dr.</p>
<p>Dr. Todd Boyd, The Notorious PhD</p>
<p><a href="http://drtoddboyd.blogspot.com">Check out Dr. Todd Boyd&#8217;s blog here</a>.</p>
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		<title>Killer Mike: Making History</title>
		<link>http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/killer-mike/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/killer-mike/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:09:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kim Osorio</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hip Hop Vs. America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[election 2008]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Killer Mike]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/killer-mike/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ 
Killer Mike says &#8220;A Change Gonna Come&#8221; while getting to the polls at 6:23am.
God bless PDA&#8217;s. I woke up restless at about 2:30 a.m, and then every hour after. Got up and brushed my teeth and deoderized.
I bought a blunt and joked with an Atlanta-African, he said to me, &#8216;Do not get so high that u [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/killermikeipledge.jpg" title="killermikeipledge.jpg"><img src="http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/killermikeipledge.jpg" alt="killermikeipledge.jpg" /></a> <br />
Killer Mike says &#8220;A Change Gonna Come&#8221; while getting to the polls at 6:23am.<span id="more-88"></span></p>
<p>God bless PDA&#8217;s. I woke up restless at about 2:30 a.m, and then every hour after. Got up and brushed my teeth and deoderized.</p>
<p>I bought a blunt and joked with an Atlanta-African, he said to me, &#8216;Do not get so high that u cast the wrong vote.&#8217; So I promise to not smoke until the victory party later (legalize it). I listened to Steve Harvey (hip hop)-hater, but I love him like an uncle-and he had a powerful message of God&#8217;s will being the most powerful directive and God directing this moment in history.</p>
<p>I got to polls at 6:23 a.m.</p>
<p>Got in a short line, met by warm greeting in the parking lot. I was the 14th person in line (not bad for a rapper. 13th was a father and son seated and behind me was a mousey looking woman holding a file.)</p>
<p>People came by the 2&#8217;s, steadily and at a country slow pace (Southern folk move at the pace of molasses in winter, sloooow and steady). I see the sisters and mothers of childhood playmates and they are pleasantly surprised to see me here. People always think you change after a lil&#8217; fame but I have not been able to. LOL. I cannot become a prick or celebrity *sshole to save my life. After she leaves, I am flooded with a temporary moment of nastalgia I remember being by my grandmother side every election as a child in the 80&#8217;s. There is a 60-ish old man talking cash sh*t and amusing folk and time whizzez by. A lady born in &#8216;53 says &#8216;I came for the excitement. I woulda sat here all day.&#8217; The 60-ish in a Kangol turns the convo to Palin and I throw the &#8220;A&#8221; the first time in my life. I ain&#8217;t worried bout what the other side doing. They got to worry &#8217;bout us. We laugh and convo breaks up.  All convos turn in to &#8220;We are history.&#8221; &#8216;53 said she cannot remember lots of that indignities (this has been a grafting process), a pretty dark lady in a beret says it&#8217;s not all Whites (that were bad), but it was kids being raised bad by racist parents.</p>
<p>The sun is rising on the West, always a beautiful sight. The blackened and purpled sky of dawn turns into a canvas of water color where the edges of the sky are a faint wash of the deep dark sky of nit and fades as the sun gently pushes the curtain of night back, and opening for the sun to stand center stage.</p>
<p>At the core, these oppressed people are appauled by McCain&#8217;s meanness. I am happy to be Black. All this, they don&#8217;t hate Bush or McCain or Palin, they just think they are being &#8220;mean.&#8221; Whoa. What an understatement, but that&#8217;s Black folk, forever forgiving. What a race. Once door is open, the son asks his dad. &#8220;We gotta wait our time.&#8221;</p>
<p>I think back as a kid, I would ask my grandma how long and she would say those words to me. I can not help but feeling like &#8220;our time is finally here.&#8221; No more waiting. I lost a mentor Rev. James Orange in February. He was a field general and organizer for MLK Jr. He talked of how proud he was of Barack and how disappointed that some of his peers did not back Barack. I hope he knows all his peers are reformed and we are moments away from our first Black President and I have him and my grandma, who marched, on my mind as I think about casting my ballot.</p>
<p>Forms come out. I use dad&#8217;s chair to write on. He holds it for a man. Brother helping brother.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"><font size="3" face="Georgia">Once I&#8217;m in, it takes another hour or so to vote. They let some other folk in that practically spent the night. And the rapper thought he was dedicated, these folk gotta work, and they here. I see the old the young people, I grew up with all here, and once in, we got half the machines we usually have and not enough electronic voter cards. Patient and determined, the father with the son from line wait and eventually get our shot, although the lady behind me encounters problems and has to protest and vote on a special machine, but votes none the less. After I vote, I steal an extra &#8220;I am a GA voter sticker.&#8221; I called my homies  that all are on federal or state probation. Only one woke up. His name is Sleepy. He asked if I cast my vote for him. I told him, &#8220;yeah I voted&#8221; exactly how you told me too, and he screams &#8220;Obama is mankind!&#8221; And praises Al Sharpton for making him an Obama supporter. (even though Killer Mike is his best frined and told him way before Sharpton). Hey, a crook for a crook, I guess. Lol. Just playing. </font></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial"><font size="3" face="Georgia">Me asleep, me a sleep. Meet up for breakfast in the West end section of Atlanta very working class. And very Black, populated by Rasta&#8217;s Black Muslims Black Jews and Christians and I see a wacky White lady, absolutely unafraid. Obama stickers litter her car. She&#8217;s holding a hand painted Obama sign out the window and she blows her horn, even cops have to smile and stop traffic for her. As I watch this spectacle and think about this morning and the last 20 or so years of my life. I can truly say, &#8220;Change Has Come.&#8221; </font></span></p>
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		<title>Murphy Lee: Murph Or Die</title>
		<link>http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/murphy-lee-murph-or-die/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/murphy-lee-murph-or-die/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:51:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kim Osorio</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hip Hop Vs. America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[election 2008]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Murph or Die]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Murphy Lee]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vote]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/murphy-lee-murph-or-die/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Murphy Lee thinks McCain delayed his flight&#8230;
Wut up BET.com&#8230; This is the one and only Murphy Lee. The lines are long, but the results will be worth it. I was in the airport from 2 p.m. yesterday &#8217;til 8 a.m. this morning&#8211;felt like McCain delayed my plane to stop me from voting for Obama. But [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/murphylee.jpg" title="murphylee.jpg"><img src="http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/murphylee.jpg" alt="murphylee.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>Murphy Lee thinks McCain delayed his flight&#8230;<span id="more-86"></span><br />
Wut up BET.com&#8230; This is the one and only Murphy Lee. The lines are long, but the results will be worth it. I was in the airport from 2 p.m. yesterday &#8217;til 8 a.m. this morning&#8211;felt like McCain delayed my plane to stop me from voting for Obama. But I&#8217;m herr. Been in line for 30 minutes now, might take another 30 to an hour&#8230;but I&#8217;m good. Obama on my moma. We win. UCME.</p>
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		<title>Nelly Vs. America!!!</title>
		<link>http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/nelly-vs-america/</link>
		<comments>http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/nelly-vs-america/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2008 19:57:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kim Osorio</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hip Hop Vs. America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nelly]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/?p=65</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ 
 I&#8217;ve heard this phrase before it&#8217;s just worded differently. It&#8217;s, like, Black America versus America almost. Its always gonna be there, why?? Because they can&#8217;t control hip-hop. If they could control it, it wouldn’t be a problem. You can&#8217;t control it because we dictate what it&#8217;s going to be. They took Pop music from us, they [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt"><a href="http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/nelly1.jpg" title="nelly1.jpg"><img src="http://blogs.bet.com/music/hhvsa/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/nelly1.jpg" alt="nelly1.jpg" /></a> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt"> I&#8217;ve heard this phrase before it&#8217;s just worded differently. <span style="font-size: 12pt">It&#8217;s, like, Black <st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region> versus <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region></st1:place> almost.</span> Its always gonna be there, why?? Because they can&#8217;t control hip-hop. If they could control it, it wouldn’t be a problem. You can&#8217;t control it because we dictate what it&#8217;s going to be. They took Pop music from us, they took Rock and Roll music from us. They try to take R&amp;B music from us. You can&#8217;t take hip-hop! Because hip-hop comes from the ghetto; it comes from the hood. It comes from the kids, it comes from that form, so you can&#8217;t take that if you&#8217;re not living in it. You can take Pop music, R&amp;B music. You can take the writers and as long as they can sing, you good.  But with that shit coming from what it is, they can&#8217;t control it. It&#8217;s gonna always be versus <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region></st1:place>. In a minute, it&#8217;s gonna be versus the world because it’s the biggest music on the planet. And until they stop trying to fight it and they acknowledge it and listen to some of the shit we&#8217;re saying, you know, they want to ban gangster rap, but it&#8217;s like, &#8216;yo, if you stop half the shit that’s going on in the hood, gangster rap probably wouldn’t exist because if you clean it up, then maybe they stop rappin about it. Try that, you done tried everything else, try going into the neighborhood and helping. Try, if a brother’s getting shot, try taking the guns off the street. If you want people to stop, stop selling bullets on the corner. If you want to clean up the drugs, stop letting the man in at the coastline. Its like you cutting the grass off up the top saying you don’t want it to grow, instead of grabbing it from the roots and its unheard of. </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Hip-hop is a voice and it&#8217;s going to forever be heard and I do think we go too far sometimes, which is the world. The world is being influenced by capital and money. And that’s whats running this country. This whole country was built on that. This whole country was built on capital, and money, and thievery, and took this land. We killed to have this land. We didn’t ask. We didn’t even know what language to ask in. How could you ask when you don’t even know what language. You don’t even know how to ask. When they hit the rock, Plymouth rock or whatever the f**k, how you gonna talk to a native American when you don’t even know what the f**k they speaking? You don’t need to talk. You got guns, you got gun powder and cannons. They over here on horses with arrows. Of course, everybody else is gonna be like &#8216;hey, whatever you want.&#8217; But that’s this whole country, and people are crazy to think its going to run any other way when yore foundation is shaky. Your foundation is built on lies, thievery, stealing, and murder. In order for somebody to be rich a crime has to take place somewhere down the line. That what divides. The only way a person casn get ahead is to step somebody down. Evolve and evolve and evolve. Now, hip-hop is making money, we&#8217;re making strides, we&#8217;re the biggest music on the planet, and we&#8217;re also the largest black employers on the planet, so its allowing more brother and sisters  to do other positive things, and send my kids to some of the best schools in the country. And to solidify trust funds, leave trust funds, have health care. It’s a beautiful thing, and I&#8217;m happy to be a part of it.</span></font></p>
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