If you ever wondered what Suge Knight thought about the track, “Tupac Back”, wonder no more. Suge put it all out on the table during a recent interview and didn’t hold anything back, even threatening Rick Ross in the process. Check out Suge Knight’s comment’s below:
“I can’t sit up here and say I’m bitter to Rick Ross, ‘c## like anybody else, we don’t know Rick Ross,” Suge said. “That’s a guy who uses somebody else’s name. This guy comes from being a correctional officer. I don’t got nothing negative [against him] personally, I just feel like he do do good music, and you can’t take that from him. That boy got bars, he’s gonna write…at the same time, I feel like there’s a line you cross, and Rick Ross crossed that line. If you’re gonna be with guy [Diddy] who killed Tupac, you can’t go turn around and do a record [called] ‘Tupac Back’…Rick Ross is a grown *ss *****. I’ll beat the dog sh*t out of Rick Ross for manipulating these people out here.”
Well, back in 2010, Rick Ross and Suge Knight’s niece were spotted together all over Miami, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Chicago, and Los Angeles. We hear that the two of them are actually best friends. Do you think Rick Ross should respond to Suge Knight?
Welcome to the absolute best week of your life!! Today’s Daily Word is dedicated to following your
heart! Today is the day that you apologize to your heart for being so disobedient, and allow it to guide you where you need to go! Today is the day that you realize that your heart has your best interest in it and will never steer you wrong! It is the day that you come to the conclusion that the more you fight your heart, the longer it will take to live your bliss!
No matter where it leads, you must always listen to what the heart is telling you! We go through the same things over and over and over again, simply because we are too egotistical to listen to the signs that are right in our faces! Life is not difficult for those who listen! Begin to listen and allow the intuitive nature of your being be your guide! I guarantee you that many things will not make logical sense, but if you just trust in your true self, then you will be and go exactly where you’re supposed to!
Always remember that there is no set path; just follow your heart, and the rest will fall into place. Today is your day! No matter what… it’s time to take charge!! Nothing can Stop You!!!
-Ash’Cash
“The human heart feels things the eyes cannot see, and knows what the mind cannot understand.” -Robert Valett
“Follow your heart, but be quiet for a while first. Ask questions, then feel the answer. Learn to trust your heart.” -Unknown
“There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart…pursue those.” -Michael Nolan
“The heart has reasons that reason does not understand.” -Jacques Benigne Bossuel
“Live your life fom your heart. Share from your heart. And your story will touch and heal people’s souls.” -Melody Beattie
“You can close your eyes to the things you do not want to see, but you cannot close your heart to the things you do not want to feel.” -Unknown
“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.” -Paulo Coelho
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your heart. (Ecclesiastes 9:10)” – The Bible
TO HEAR THE AUDIO VERSION OF THE DAILY WORD – CLICK HERE.
Ash’Cash is a Business Consultant, Motivational Speaker, Financial Expert and the author of Mind Right, Money Right: 10 Laws of Financial Freedom. For more information, please visit his website, www.IamAshCash.com.
Editor’s Note: This is Part 4 of AllHipHop.com’s month-long series, “Rap, Race and Riots: Hip-Hop 20 Years after the L.A. Rebellion.”
“How to Make a Slave by Willie Lynch/ is still applyin'” – “Redefintion”, Black Star
Two score years ago, evil marketing genius, Big Willie Lynchman stood on the bank of the Los Angeles River and delivered a speech to entertainment executives about how to control Hip-Hop. “You must divide the old school rappers against the new school, the East Coast against the West Coast, male rappers against female rappers,” he shouted. “If you do this, I guarantee that you will control Hip-Hop for another 20 years….”
Of course, the above scenario is jacked from the “Willie Lynch: How to Make a Slave” letter, but just like the infamous letter, if it ain’t historically true, it’s darn near close.
As Phillip A. Muhammad, author of “The Hip Hop Nation: Willie Lynch’s Newest Slave”, put it , “The doctrine and methods of Willie Lynch gave birth to a modern slave mentality that permits today’s rappers to be pimped, prostituted, punked, bullied, isolated and corrupted due to the divisive characteristics that are outlined within the Willie Lynch Letter.”
So much so, that in 2012, we are still asking ourselves, “Why can’t Black folks get along?”
Although the mainstream media like to focus on the violent aspect of the 1992 L.A. Rebellion, following the trial of the cops that beat Rodney King, the real threat to the social hegemony of this country was not the “burnin’ and lootin”‘ but the peace treaties and the spirit of Black unity that swept the nation. For the first time in more than 20 years. the African American community yelled out with a united voice, “We ain’t gonna take it no more!!!
All of a sudden, gangs that had been bitter enemies for years were partyin’ together at community picnics. But, before the coals could even cool on the grill, the unity ended. Twenty years later, we have to ask, what happened?
Like all things, the answers are rooted in history, as one of the greatest weapons against Black unity has been the divide and conquer strategy.
In Eugene Genovese’s work, “From Rebellion to Revolution”, he mentions that some Maroon societies even signed “peace treaties” with colonial regimes for freedom in exchange for pledges to return runaways and “repress slave rebellions” in the Caribbean. He also wrote that in the U.S. during the Nat Turner Revolt, some slaves even sided with their masters.
But, through it all, there were always those who fought for unity.
The greatest example of Black solidarity is, perhaps, the United Negro Improvement Association founded by Marcus Garvey in 1914, which is said to have had at its apex two million members. Although a remnant of the UNIA still exists, according to historians like Theodore G. Vincent (“Black Power and the Garvey Movement”), it was, virtually, destroyed by a combination of federal persecution, internal bickering, and the efforts of integrationist “mainstream” Black leaders who started a “Garvey Must Go” campaign.
Perhaps the closest thing to Garvey’s Movement in Hip-Hop was X-Clan and the Black Watch Movement during the late ’80s/early ’90s. Original X-Clan member Paradise Gray said that the key behind the success of that movement was that it was “inter-generational.” “Everywhere X-Clan traveled there were elders to greet us,” said Gray. During that brief period in Hip-Hop history, from 1988-1992, unity was the norm, not an exception, to the rule.
But after 1992, things began to change.
Although Dr. Dre and political awareness is oxymoronic, he captured White America’s fear on The Chronic’s largely forgotten track, “The Day the N*ggaz Took Over”, prompting the end of the Conscious Hip-Hop Era.
All of a sudden, the people that America considered useless street thugs became intelligent hoodlums. The book “Uprising” by Yusuf Shah and Sister Shah ‘Keyah featured gang members who spoke very clearly about the state of America following the L.A. Rebellion. According to one interviewee – General Robert Lee – the reason why the peace treaty failed was “a big conspiracy with the government and police starting much of the trouble.”
But “the state” was not the only reason.
Conscious Hip-Hop began to decline when artists began to focus on teaching middle class, White America about “growin’ up in the ‘hood,” instead of giving young, Black children a “Knowledge of Self.”
Perhaps too much emphasis was placed on convincing White folks that “rappers were people, too” – the lowest point being when feared “gangsta rappers” Ice T and Tupac Shakur sang the sappy duet, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” on the “Saturday Night Live” special in 1996.
Retrospectively, William Van DeBurg in “New Day in Babylon” argued that, after the Black Power Movement, America experienced a “welcomed hiatus from urban rioting” and “both the press and public lost interest in Black Power.”
In the same manner, the more the smoke cleared from the L.A. Uprising, the more “Black unity” became an out-of-date fad.
Also, although the topic of urban outrage and ‘hood tales appealed to a broad audience, in an industry dominated by green power, the idea of Black unity was dismissed as only appealing to a small, insignificant African American demographic. Hip-Hop murder and mayhem was a much bigger money maker.
The average American really does not give two cents about Black-on-Black relations. The only time that it is really mentioned is when, during a Trayvon Martin-like situation, racist right wingers need to point a figure and create straw man arguments to blame White racism on “Black on Black violence.”
“Uh, how are you guys gonna blame us, when you kill each other every day, Buddy ?”
We have to realize that the Black on Black violence is a direct result of the destruction of Black unity.
But that’s the problem. What’s the solution?
Dr. Alim Bey, author of “First World Order” and owner of the Cultural Freedom Bookstore in Fayetteville, North Carolina, suggested, “Awareness has to be the key; a re-establishment of culture.”
So, how are you going to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the L.A. Rebellion? Are you gonna just kick back and watch CNN, Fox, and MSNBC talking heads wax poetic about Black issues about which they know nothing about? Or are you going to use the anniversary to, proactively, help solve the problems we are facing today?
On April 29, 2012, we are calling for a Black Unity/Peace Treaty and a formal resurrection of political Hip-Hop. On that day, we must use our social network outlets, Facebook, Twitter, etc, to promote the idea of “Peace in the ‘Hood”.
With all the ill stuff that has happened to Black people in just the past few months, it is very necessary for us to put behind differences and work towards a common goal.
Like West Coast Kam warned us two decades ago on “Peace Treaty”:
“It’s now or never/ more than ever/ Black people have to stick together.”
TRUTH Minista Paul Scott’s weekly column is This Ain’t Hip Hop: a column for intelligent Hip=Hop headz. He can be reached at [email protected], on his website, www.NoWarningShotsFired.com, and on Twitter (@truthminista).
Making history on the Coachella stage, New Orleans and Harlem united and the fans got the best of both worlds. Master P, accompanied with Romeo and A$AP Rocky one of the best newcomers from the East. Two generations of swag came together on one stage and at one point, all you could hear is thousands of Coachella fans screaming “Make’em say Ughh!”
The night got serious and you could feel the passion and energy in the atmosphere as Master P performed another one of his hit anthem songs “Miss My Homies” and made a dedication to the recent slain teen Trayvon Martin.
In a Wahida Clark novel, you will be convinced of at least one of three things: You KNOW the characters, you WANT to know the characters, or you ARE one of the characters. Clark has penned over two dozen books, beginning her career during a prison stint. Her books have been said to be the blueprint for “thug” fiction, this from a woman with grown children, who sort of looks like a school teacher. But, Wahida Clark is real, and she writes from a real place with stories that she has lived or heard. Her bestselling novel,”Justify My Thug” was a New York Times Bestseller, thanks in part to her deal with Cash Money Content Books.
Wahida Clark’s latest book, “Payback Ain’t Enough”, the third in the “Payback” series. is hitting bookstores on April 24, and AllHipHop.com spoke to the illustrious author beforehand about street fiction, the Hip-Hop literary genre, and why she chose to work with Cash Money:
AllHipHop.com: I was one of those people who was really a purist. If a book wasn’t by Toni Morrison or Alice Walker or James Baldwin, I wasn’t reading it. I was really a snob. It wasn’t until I got a job reviewing books that I got the opportunity to read a lot more urban books, and it opened me up to a lot of authors and a lot of different stories being told. So, Wahida, what do you say to people like me, or like I used to be, who have a sort of negative impression of urban fiction?
Wahida Clark: That’s an important question. Fiction is the art of storytelling; urban fiction is about storytelling. It’s not new, because Donald Goines, Iceberg Slim, and Chester Hines were all doing it in, what, the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s? So, street lit, urban fiction, ‘hood fiction, it’s not new, but the genre has exploded, and I don’t know of one major publishing house that doesn’t have a street lit or urban fiction division. To me, street lit, we write about what we know or what we’ve lived. I don’t see why it’s always an issue. We don’t make people read street lit, just like you go to the movies, you might not want to see a horror movie, you want to see a love story. Everybody has their own preference.
AllHipHop.com: One of the things that people complain about with street literature is usually the grammar; it’s written much more colloquially. I think that’s one of the things that people tend to point to as a negative.
Wahida Clark: But why? We all know that people talk that way. People have their own language and slang. It seems like there are always people who look for something to say, ”Oh, that’s bringing us down.” You know, “Tyler Perry is dressing like a woman; that’s degrading the race. They’re writing that stuff and the horror, the language, their bringing us down.” But, you know, it’s really about literacy getting folks to read. I get so many letters from people who say, “Wahida, your book was the first book I ever read.” And these are grown people who never read a book before in their life. To each his own. We can’t please everybody.
AllHipHop.com: One of the things that I really like about urban fiction, and I’ve only been into the genre for about five years, but it often features strong, female characters. But, they always seem to have some flaw that brings them down… Love is often their weakness too.
Wahida Clark: Well, it’s reality. But this is fiction. I write to entertain. My first books featured love stories that were just perfect. They were just perfect. Then when I switched it up and added some real stuff, people thought I messed up the perfect love. I wanted to mix it up. I don’t know nobody who’s perfect.
AllHipHop.com: A lot of urban authors, most of the most popular ones, have been incarcerated or had some type of trauma. How did writing help you turn your life around?
Wahida Clark: Well, you know I started writing while I was in prison. It helped me turn my life around, because about a year into my sentence, I thought, I have got to do something to help me right now, because it costs money to live in prison. And, I wanted to help my two teenage daughters who were living with relatives. I was in prison. I had just started my sentence, which was 10½ years. My husband was incarcerated. And I needed to set up a foundation for what my life would be like when I came out of prison.
I was working in the law library, and I saw an article, it was in XXL or The Source, and it was on Shannon Holmes, and he had written a book in prison called “B-More Careful”. I’m sitting there looking at all of these books on the shelves, then I started visualizing my name on the spines of the books, and that’s when I had my lightbulb moment; that’s when I started writing. I got published; people loved the books, they loved the characters. “Payback Ain’t Enough” is book number 11. I have my own publishing company, 14 authors, and 18 books in stores around the country.
AllHipHop.com: I think that’s one of the amazing things about urban fiction authors – many of them have such an inspiring story, and they speak directly to audiences that many mainstream authors forget even exist.
Wahida Clark: That’s true. That’s a very good point, Biba. We have different motivations that drove us into writing and trying to make it the best that we can make it.
AllHipHop.com: Why were you incarcerated?
Wahida Clark: I was incarcerated for mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. I did 9½ years, and I wouldn’t change not one second. Because if anything was changed, I wouldn’t be here right now, getting interviewed by Biba of AllHipHop.com. [laughter] Getting ready for my book release party, which is next Tuesday.
AllHipHop.com: I know our readers are interested in your deal with Cash Money Content. How did that come about?
Wahida Clark: My agent at the time told me that Cash Money was getting ready to start a publishing company. I said, “Cash Money? As in Lil’ Wayne?” I went back to Juvenile and all of them. [laughter] I thought about the huge audience they have. They sell millions of records. We need to be selling millions of books. I set up the meeting and went to their management office in New York. I said to Slim (Ronald “Slim” Williams, CEO of Cash Money), “Is this going to be big?” and he said, “Wahida, it’s gonna be big.” So, I said, “Ok. I’m in.”
I wanted to tap into that huge audience that they have, and Baby said, “I feel I can sell as many books as I do records,” And, that’s what I’m talking about. And, Hip-Hop is street lit. I can’t leave out the fact that they gave me full creative control. The writing, the cover, they let me do me, and sure enough, “Justify My Thug”, debuted at number 19 on the New York Times Bestseller List, and now “Payback Ain’t Enough” is coming out, and we can’t wait to see what it’s gonna do.
AllHipHop.com: Still speaking of Cash Money Content. I know what they bring to you, that large audience and fan base, but what do you bring to them? What did you say in that meeting that Wahida can do for them?
Wahida Clark: I didn’t have to tell them anything. They had already done their research. Every time a book comes out, my numbers are growing. Nobody can doubt that I can write street lit, just like nobody can doubt that they can sell CDs. I didn’t have to tell them that I brought anything to the table. Just wanted me to bring ME to the table, and keep doing what I do.
(AllHipHop News) Former Bad Boy rapper Ma$e has run afoul of the federal government, as the latest artist to owe a six-figure tax bill.
TMZ.com reports that Ma$e owes over $124,000 in back taxes.
According to the IRS, the rapper-turned-preacher owes taxes for the year 2000, 2001, and 2004.
The news of Ma$e’s tax troubles comes on the heels of the former star’s return to the arena of rap.
Ma$e, who topped the charts with singles like “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems” and “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down,” is reportedly working on tracks for French Montana’s upcoming release Excuse My French, as well as Rick Ross’ pending album God Forgives I Don’t.
(AllHipHop News) The “Queen Bee” has been plotting her comeback for the past three years, and now comes the announcement that Lil Kim will hit the road on an 11-city tour, dubbed the “Return of the Queen.”
The “Return of the Queen” tour, which will kick off on May 11 in Austin, Texas, before making stops in cities like Philadelphia, Cincinnati, San Francisco, and the Bronx, New York City, before wrapping up on June 13 in West Hollywood, California.
Kim is currently hard at work on her untitled fifth studio album, the follow-up to 2005’s The Naked Truth, whichincluded the singles “Lighters Up” and “Whoa”. Most recently, she released the promotional track, “Keys to the City“, featuring Young Jeezy, which may or may not be featured on her upcoming LP.
Check out a full list of tour dates and cities below:
May 11th – Austin, TX (Emo’s)
May 13th – Pensacola, FL (Vinyl Music Hall)
May 18th – Bronx, NY (Paradise Theater)
May 19th – Albany, NY (Northern Lights)
May 20th – Philadelphia, PA (Club ONYX)
May 22nd – Burlington, VT (Higher Ground)
May 25th – Markham, IL (Adrianna’s Night Club)
May 27th – Milwaukee, WI (Riverside Theatre)
June 1st – Cincinnati, OH (Bogart’s)
June 11th – San Francisco, CA (Mezzanine)
June 13th – West Hollywood, CA
Tickets for the Lil Kim’s “Return of the Queen” tour will go on sale shortly at www.Ticketmaster.com.
(AllHipHop News) Sony Pictures and Will Smith’s Overbroook Entertainment have acquired the rights to the novel “Boy Nobody” as a starring vehicle his son, Jaden Smith.
According to Variety, Overbrook won an intense bidding war with several other major film studios for the movie rights to the book “Boy Nobody.”
The novel “Boy Nobody,” which hasn’t even been released yet, is a three-part science fiction story written by Allen Zadoff.
The movie will feature Jaden Smith starring as a teenage assassin who has been brainwashed.
Over the course of the film, he slowly regains his memory and his emotions.
Jaden Smith’s next movie will be M. Night Shyamalan’s movie “After Earth,” which also stars Will Smith.
AllHipHop.com’s resident Daily Word guru and all-around inspirational guy, Ash Cash, is back with his latest installment of “Ask Ash Cash.”
In the video below, he offers some sound advice to a reader:
Dear Ash Cash: What’s the best way to save money as a college student? -Tamara McCloud
As a college student, it’s very important to begin the habit of saving as soon as possible. The most effective way is to “pay yourself first” and figure out the difference between what you need and what you want.
“Pay Yourself First” is a concept that was first introduced in George Classons classic book, “The Richest Man in Babylon” Then in Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and also in my book, “Mind Right, Money Right: 10 Laws of Financial Freedom”. This concept is pretty simple: in order to create the habit of saving money, you must see yourself as a priority. Not your bill collectors! You!! What most people don’t realize is that it costs us way too much to borrow money, and as a college student, you will have many creditors begging to get you into debt.
What may seem like a deal at first becomes a big mistake after you add all the interest you will be paying. Sometimes people wind up paying three times the original amount of an item because of interest. The best thing to do is to have patience and save for what you want. Having money saved will alleviates financial stress and stops you from having to borrow money to get what you want. Beginning immediately, every time you get any income, no matter where it comes from, put aside $1 for every $10 you make. The best and most effective way to develop this habit is to make it as painless as possible. There is a saying “out of sight, out of mind” – if you make it automatic and make it invisible, you will create the habit without it even disrupting your day to day life. If you recieve money via direct deposit, take out your savings before you receive it, you’ll never know it’s missing. If you receive income in the form of a check, then have automatic deductions come out of your bank account on a monthly basis.
In order to avoid the temptation of using the funds for everyday purchases, you should open a separate bank account at an institution other than the one you keep your primary account in. I suggest a high interest savings account at a bank like ING Direct or FNBO Direct. Because these banks have little or no physical branches, it limits the access to your account, making it easier for you to save, while receiving a reasonable interest rate.
Ash’Cash is a Business Consultant, Motivational Speaker, Financial Expert and the author of Mind Right, Money Right: 10 Laws of Financial Freedom. For more information, please visit his website, www.IamAshCash.com.
(AllHipHop News) Just four years ago rapper John Forte was pardoned from a 14-year federal prison sentence, after getting caught trafficking $1.4 million dollars in liquid cocaine through Newark International Airport in New Jersey.
After seven years served, the rapper was pardoned by former President George W. Bush in 2008, with the help of Carly Simon and Utah Senator, Phillips Exeter.
Since then, Forte has spent the last several years piecing his life back together.
The 37-year-old musician recently dropped his new documentary “The Russian Winter,” which premiered in New York.
Over the weekend, John Forte gave fans an introspective look inside his life, as he debuted the new film at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The Russian Winter focuses on a nine-week trip that Forte took across Russia in 2011.
While there, the former Fugees associate performed at select dates across the country with Russian musicians, raising money for local charities.
“I think the knee-jerk reaction of coming home was to make a documentary about my life preceding prison, and what took place in prison, leading up to me coming home. But something about it just didn’t feel right. It felt exploitative,” Forté explained to the New York Times.
“You know, I went to prep school. When I came back to the ‘hood, it wasn’t like people slapped me on the back and said, ‘Wow, you got your stripes now.’ But there were so many guys that went [to prison] for a year, went away for two years, went away for five years. And when they came back, it was almost like they were praised. And that’s the last message I wanted to send. There was nothing cool about my time away.”
Meet THEESatisfaction, Stasia Irons and Catherine Harris-White, a duo straight out of Tacoma, Washington. They recently dropped a tight visual for their latest song “QueenS”.
Promo photos feature the two in ’90s-like clothing. Pictured above is a pose and photo, that looks very similar to a popular photo technique popularized in the early ’90’s. While it brings back a feeling of nostalgia, for future’s sake, we hope THEESatisfaction can figure out a way to marry their genre-bending music, with an innovative look. They’re almost there, the nail is in the wood, they just need a hammer to make it stick.
As writers and producers, they both compose their material, and describe their genre-bending sounds as “funk-psychedelic feminista sci-fi epics”. Signed to Sub Pop Records, this duo provides quite an interesting listen, and you can only do nothing but wait to see what’s next up their really long sleeves.
