Teflon Don was a moniker given to John Gotti, the Boss of all Bosses, because he was able to avoid many attempts to be convicted due to being acquitted or by having a jury of his peers not able to agree on a verdict.  It wasn’t until 1992 when the United States Government, with the help […]

DONATE $5 to Kevin’s campaign NOW at www.kevinpowell.net (click DONATE) “When you consider the intelligence and breadth of Kevin Powell’s writing and activism, you come to the conclusion that there may be no better spokesperson and representative for a generation that has too long been counted out.” —asha bandele An interesting thing happens in America […]

This week was Lauryn Hill’s 35th birthday. Normally this event passes without fanfare in industry circles, except this year fans and media became prematurely excited at reports the sequestered star would be making a return by headlining this year’s Rock the Bells tour and performing all the tracks from her timeless debut, The Miseducation of […]

Nas is on a whole other level, right now. “All I do is stay focused – looking straight forward at the word, and beyond I feel people pulling me down I feel some pulling me up I can’t get stuck I just keep moving forward I got places to go man. Let’s go” – Nas, […]

DESTINY A learning process might appear … for the crushed, the forbidden-to-be, the rejected, that would teach them that, through serious, just, determined, untiring struggle, it is possible to remake the world. —Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: The Continuum Publishing Co., 1994), p. 198. Must survive any how […]

Who’s The Real Terrorist?April 19th marked the 15th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh. While many gathered on that day to commemorate that tragic event, the act itself, and others like it, continues to shed light on a fundamental hypocrisy in American society. The hypocrisy […]

A popular sentiment shared among members of the sports community is that politics and sports should not mix.  After all, with the vast investment of Corporate America, astronomical ticket pricing and multi-billion dollar television contracts, it is simply safer and financially more lucrative to accept the status quo than to challenge it. The Phoenix Suns […]

I’ve mentioned this story before because it was one of those experiences that always stays with you. In December 2009, I wrote the following in a column at AllHipHop.com: “In 1996, while serving as GM of Wu-Tang Management, I participated in a private meeting with executives from RCA Records. At a certain point they brought […]

People have always smoked marijuana, for one reason or another.  Some people justifiable reasoning was religious/spiritual or medicinal, others used the drug-induced state to escape, some indulged to make stupidity seem gut busting hilarious, if not genius, while others just geeked and got the munchies.  I’m from the red light, beaded sectional dividers, burnt incense, […]

DEATH All deaths have causes … Corpses are cut open, explored, scanned, tested, until the cause is found: a blood clot, kidney failure, hemorrhage, heart arrest, lung collapse. We do not hear of people dying of mortality. They die only of individual causes … No post-mortem examination is considered complete until the individual cause has […]

Scarface has never been one to mince words, but when the rap legend refused to participate in the 2010 Hip-Hop Honors’ ode The South, he revealed to Ozone Magazine exactly why. Peep it. For more, go to ozonemag.com.Scarface: I was nominated [to be honored at the “Dirty South” VH1 Hip Hop Honors] but I declined […]

 The views expressed inside this editorial aren’t necessarily the views of AllHipHop.com or its employees.“The term role model generally means any “person who serves as an example, whose behavior is emulated by others” – Wikipedia “This is something I will make sure never happens again. My time in jail was trying, but I grew from […]

Renaissance – any new birth, re-birth or revival of art, thought, science, literature, or architecture. [(French for “rebirth”; Italian: Rinascimento, from ri- “again” and nascere “be born”)] Listening to the new albums from Ana Tijoux and Queen Yonasda made me think of Akinyele. I know what you’re thinking so let me explain. About 11 years […]

DISPOSABILITY   “As the social state is displaced by the market, a new kind of politics is emerging in which some lives, if not whole groups, are seen as disposable and redundant.” —Henry A. Giroux, Youth in a Suspect Society: Democracy or Disposability? (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 155-156. They lack the minerals and […]

Kimbo Slice is gone. The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) has unceremoniously dismissed the Florida pugilist after he lost his second UFC fight on Saturday Night. Kimbo was beaten in classic form – outlasted and convincingly. The thing is, in an odd Hip-Hop sort of way, Kimbo was “us.” The quintessential underdog, the dude honed his […]

We are living in precarious and dangerous times.  The economy remains unstable, joblessness is continuously skyrocketing, development is stagnant and unpredictable circumstances around the world are exacerbating the fears of many.  But what is also quietly bubbling underneath the surface is a far more treacherous and detrimental push for a shift in American psychology that […]

It’s not many words in the world more powerful than “mother.” Those six letters can bring joy, just like they bring pain. It can invoke excitement just as quickly as it can anger, depending on the context, I guess. For myself, it means more than I can ever possibly describe, but I will try. I […]

“Make ‘em say go LL and do the Wop!” – LL Cool J As I think back, the Wop was probably the last dance mentioned in a rap song that I tried to do. Did I say try?  Who am I kidding?  I mastered the Wop.  I did it with both of my hands or […]

Ignoring The 95 Percenters: Can Beyond Oblivion Serve Industry & Music Liberation? Will October 10, 2010 be the date we will look back on as the moment the music industry was saved… from itself? Maybe. Those familiar with this column will remember that I already have suggested December 8, 2009 – the date VEVO was […]

By Abdul Arif Muhammad, Esq. In an April 23, 2010 Op-Ed piece for  The New York Times entitled “Ending the Slavery Blame-Game,” Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. argues that a moral, historic, political and economic equivalency exists between the culpability and responsibility of some Africans who participated in the transatlantic slave trade with the nations […]