We have established that Kanye West was wrong when he jumped on stage last year and snatched the microphone from Taylor Swift, a pop country singer. We’ve established firmly that Kanye is a man of raw emotions and passion and that causes him to act on impulse…with mixed results.

It has been five months since Kanye West crashed the VMA’s in September ’09. While for some, that’s not a long period of time, we have had to endure our share of laughs over it and all had our share of water cooler talk about it. The Country Music Awards devoted several monologues to Mr. West and Taylor’s boyfriend had his Saturday Night Live moment to “behead” his nemesis in December. Quite late, indeed.

Kanye West won Grammy awards last night and should have performed, but he was not invited to participate in the festivities. “The Man” is delivering a stern message to you hippity hoppity guys. Have your fun, but some things still won’t be tolerated. I can only assume that snatching the mic from Taylor was perceived as an attack.

Why else would Kanye West continue to be blackballed and cut off from events in this manner?

And the everlasting doe-like appearance of Princess Taylor helped get the lynch mob riled up to string ol’ Darth Kanye up somewhere. An AllHipHop columnist published an editorial chastising Kanye and Lil Mama for their actions that night, but isn’t it time to move on? The Hip-Hop audience is a very forgiving culture, despite all the pseudo gangsta posturing.

But, the other side is not so quick to let let bygones be bygones…even if it is for a good cause such as Haiti.

Kanye is being punished despite public apologies and the sincere admission that he never healed from the tragic death of his mother. All things considered, Kanye is one of the more positive forces in music that just has a penchant for pushing buttons and doing that which most people fear.

“Kanye is one of the good-hearted brothers in this game,” Common told MTV. “I’ve seen him do so much for so many people. I can never fix my mouth to say anything negative about him. If I see him do something that I don’t feel is right, that’s something I’ll take care of personally.”

So, last night Los Angeles hosted the annual Grammys and how ironic is it that even in absence, Kanye West is the story of the day. The show was so sanitized and orderly that Lady Gaga didn’t even stand out with her psychotic church outfit. Beyonce was cool. Pink did the same circus act from the VMAs. And the Drake, Lil Wayne, Eminem rap segment was so muted, it screams of sabotage. With a few exceptions, the show was boring. Hell, the Twitter commentary was the most entertaining portion of the show.

And then Taylor Swift won album of the year over Beyonce, Lady Gaga, The Dave Matthews Band and The Black Eyed Peas.

“The Man” is good…real good. And has a wicked sense of humor.

Some things just aren’t funny after a while.

 “Kicked out of Brooklyn Tech, focusing on looking fresh/

Bright kid accepted to the schools that only took the best/

Bounce like a check, yes, without no hesitation/

I went to college, then I left—that’s when I got my education/”

—Talib Kweli, “Over the Counter,” Liberation, 2007.

Sometimes it takes the stinging critique of Hip-Hop artists to wake society up from its slumber; and it is in line with this tradition that I hope the comments made by The Game one week ago would travel further down into offices of government and school boards. On his Twitter page last Monday, Game questioned the sincerity of the education system in educating young people toward a future of self-governance. He asked, “After you learned how to read & do addition, what else did we need school for that we use in everyday life as an adult?” Game was especially concerned about the teach-to-test formula currently in use in most public schools nationwide (NCLB), and whether parents aren’t willingly—albeit unknowingly—handing their kids over to a system set up to preserve the status quo, rather than empower them to change it: “up at 7, out at 3pm five days a week. caught in the matrix but as a parent, I just dropped my kids off @ school & [I get a] break from em’.”

Game pondered if “school was a government’s plot to keep track of us & program our lives,” and, like educator John Gatto suggested two decades ago (Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling), concluded many parents aren’t equipped emotionally to challenge the pedagogical models used to educate kids because “school is a babysitter.” Don’t wanna upset her!

For this, Game has been chastised by bloggers and fans, accused of encouraging kids to drop out. That 7,000 students already quit school every day—and only 70% graduate with High School diplomas—is less a concern to his critics. That in the 50 largest cities only 53% graduate on time is another ignored reality. It’s easier, you see, to blame rappers for their “anti-intellectual” comments and content, than to confront the truth.  

The education system today is not only a sham, but also, as Game alluded, a b#### trap. Pass through any public school peopled with Black and Latino kids and reality is sure to meet you half-way. You’ll find students abandoned in classes with broken ceilings, unqualified teachers, hostile administrators and, most remarkably, legion of law enforcement. The same is also true for poor White kids. Only the rich—and super-rich—have it good.  

In the last two decades, the public school system has been radically remodeled in two distinct, but connected, ways: 1) Privatization 2) Militarization.

In the first instance, schools are commercialized so savagely that now giant corporations like McDonalds and Pepsi and Campbell Soup are granted license to invade classrooms and design actual curriculum packages. A decade ago, McDonalds partnered up with a Florida elementary school to structure programs for its students. “If you want to work in a McDonald’s when you grow up, you already know what to do,” a ten-year-old student reported. “Also, McDonald’s is better than Burger King.” Today, McDonald’s has upped the ante—now passing out “Happy Meal” coupons with the report cards of elementary school kids. Such was the case in Florida three years back, where some students, of the 27,000 in Seminole County elementary schools, brought home free coupons with their report cards, as part of a “Made the Grade” program. Why? The school board was short on funds—but McDonald’s wasn’t. Never is. The $1,700 tab needed to cover envelopes and printing fees was gleefully picked up by the multi-billion dollar chain which, though in violation of its Council of Better Business Bureaus pledge, was permitted to market directly, without the consent of parents, to school kids. “I was appalled and shocked, because I don’t want her eating that type of food,” fumed a concerned mother whose 9-year-old daughter brought home a report card with fast food menu items printed on the cover.

On the other hand, public schools are often designed to model prisons. In some states, like Boston and California, more money is allocated to the construction of “correction facilities” than for education facilities. The politics of zero-tolerance has ensured that disenfranchised Black and Brown students are reprimanded, often harshly, for immaterial infractions, leading off to detention halls eerily identical to the penitentiaries they ultimately end up in. Hence, the school-to-prison pipeline. Most public schools located in low-income districts are not only dilapidated and under-funded but often appear more invested in the reduction of violence and prevention of gang activity than the sculpturing and molding of future pioneers. Schools now have surveillance systems located at every nook and cranny, and lockdowns or locker-searches are increasingly gaining grounds. An explicit example occurred on November 5, 2003, where police officers, clad in SWAT team attire, stormed Stratford High School, South Carolina, armed with K9s, and advanced through the hallways with guns-drawn, pointed at students who by now were, trembling for dear life, all knelt or lying down with arms clasped above their heads. This caustic charade went on for a while, until the officers, whose trusted sniffing agents had turned up 12 false-positives, decided to end it.

And this horrific freak-show of privatization and militarization has taken place in rapid succession within a few decades only.

50 years ago, it seemed almost impossible to imagine a time when public schools were more reflective of market principles than moral virtues. Worse yet, it was nearly inconceivable to predict an era wherein schools were modeled, structured, and designed after prisons. Unfortunately, that seemingly dream world of leftist-paranoia is the reality staring us down today. Not only are schools increasingly taking flesh in forms of corporations—where students are treated as consumers and patrons—more and more are adopting rudimentary tactics plagiarized from prison play-books. So much is this thinking pervasive in the school system that a child born today might never know what it means to go to school daily without being strip-searched en route to classes where teachers know more about Pepsi than Paulo Freire, and more about Wal-Mart than W.E.B. Du Bois.

So, Game is right on target, and, in my judgment, didn’t even go far enough. Anyone who doubts how dilapidated and dangerous most public schools are today to the creation of a livable society free from neoliberal or biopolitical governance needs to pick up the works of acclaimed scholar Henry Giroux. Schooling and the Struggle for Public Life: Democracy’s Promise and Education’s Challenge, Teachers as Intellectuals: Toward a Critical Pedagogy of Learning, and Youth in a Suspect Society: Democracy or Disposability? would be good starts.

Hip-Hop artists are in an especially opportune position to articulate critiques of the public school system since many are products of it. In truth, many were deemed academic failures who wouldn’t (and couldn’t) “amount to nothing,” but ended up giving life to a cultural force that changed and transformed millions worldwide. We’ve all heard the lamentations of artists once considered intellectually incompetent who, today, set the cultural temperature under which the world operates. One reason why a student may fall within the cracks in school but blossom outside of it is the definition of intelligence as understood by most school administrators. “We need to radically rethink our view of intelligence. … We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we’re educating our children,” cautioned creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson four years ago at the renowned Technology, Entertainment, Design conference. He explained that intelligence is Diverse, Dynamic, and Distinct.

These three qualities, unfortunately, have fallen faintly on deaf ears, as schools nationwide rush to improve math and science scores—by any means necessary (even “rewarding” teachers for students’ performances). And even recess is being cut—already in over 40% of schools—to drive home a harder bargain.

So, a born poet might never find fertile ground to sprout successfully, and a future graffiti artist is likely to see nothing of value in a school only interested in reproducing engineers and architects, scientists and doctors to “compete”—like cannon fodder—with citizens of other countries.

* * *

Any hopes of reform from the current administration seem almost Utopian considering the background of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who, while CEO of Chicago Public Schools, ran a reputation of militarizing and privatizing public schools, shutting down schools abruptly, mass firing teachers (often entire school staff—including janitors and kitchen workers), and tearing down public schools to e#### charter, voucher, and other private substitutes in their stead.

Duncan has very little to say on school reform—besides catchy slangs like “standards” and “up to speed” and “high bar.” This, however, never mattered one bit when, in January 2009, he was approved unanimously in the Senate—and with haste. Senators laced him with fawning praise: “I think you’re the best,” one gushed. And another: “This is a guy who gets it.”  One wonders, with perplexity, what Duncan “gets,” and if he, in fact, was the “best” possible choice.

In the $787 billion stimulus package passed by Congress February 2009, Duncan was presented $10 billion to raise standards and rectify dilapidated schools across the country. Of his bounty, $5 billion has no strings attached, meaning, as a PBS report put it, “[h]e can spend it to push for the changes he wants. That’s real power.” Duncan not only has the power to do whatever he pleases; he also has the press. Thus far, he’s been favored with uncritical coverage by mainstream channels—and even independent forums like PBS—while many Chicago students still feel the pinch from his 8-year-stint.

Duncan’s vision for the future is refreshing; consider his recent remarks that Hurricane Katrina was “the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans.”

* * *

Students get very little out of the education system, safe for a clear understanding of their place in the world, and how unforgivable society considers dissidence. They are to fit perfectly within a set paradigm and do as told—or end up suspended, expelled, arrested and, later on, incarcerated.   

Hip-Hop artist/educator Asheru agrees: “There are a lot of schools that are low-performing, low-functioning, that do our children no good. They literally are babysitters.” But he’s also aware of a “growing movement in education” amongst teachers of greater knowledge and good conscience. “There’s always that undercurrent of teachers who look at teaching as a mission, who look at education as a doorway to freedom,” he says. For them, “it’s not just a job—they’re trying to liberate kids.”

Asheru, who founded the groundbreaking Hip-Hop Educational Literacy Program (H.E.L.P.), sees his role in concert with this movement: “As a teacher, my job is to show you how what I’m teaching applies to your everyday life; otherwise, I can understand why people tune out.”

And H.E.L.P is just one means by which he metes out this objective: by asking a few questions about the connections between art and life—Hip-Hop and society: “How does what they’re [artists] saying shape their reality? And how does what they’re saying shape your [students] reality?” These questions must be asked because “there’s not a lot of critical thinking going on in the schools.”

When 6-year-olds are dragged out in handcuffs to police stations simply for throwing tantrums in class, there’s little doubt to what end education today is directed. When 11-year-old autistic kids are charged with felony assault for refusing to be subdued by adults, it’s no more ambiguous what expectations are made of children in the authority-centered world surrounding them. When over 1,500 students are mass-disciplined for refusing to put on the garb of oppression (uniforms), it’s no more shocking to hear a commercially successful rapper openly wonder if schools are merely part of a larger “plot to keep track of us & program our lives.”

Asheru says he understands how Game’s “negative experience … plays into his attitudes when his children are in the same scenario.” However, “as rappers we have this tremendous voice—but what are we saying with it?” He wants Hip-Hop artists to do more than talk tough—to forge alliances with progressive organizations whose boots are on the ground, day-in-day-out, trying to make life more meaningful for disenfranchised kids.

Artists like Game, having survived the education system, “should have a say in what goes on from here on out.” This “ongoing domestic problem,” which is the “root problem for all the other problems we face,” requires mobilization on all levels—especially from Hip-Hop artists. Rappers should “take proactive stances and actually do something.” Hopefully, Game’s listening.

Tolu Olorunda is a cultural critic whose work regularly appears on TheDailyVoice.com and other online journals. He can be reached at: [email protected]. 

After recently previewing the collection at the (capsule) trade show, KR3W gives us a closer look at their much anticipated footwear line. The styles are contemporary, polished, yet of course still meant to serve their purpose as skate sneakers. KR3W is known for their premium street apparel including graphic tees, flannel shirts, super clean denim and more. Four different models are shown here: The Franklin, Jackson, Grant (seen above) and Grant Low.

Jackson

Franklin

Grant Low

 Is KR3W onto something here? My personal favorite is the Jackson, with its fresh dress shoe look. Cop or drop these kicks? While you wait for release dates to be announced, check out KR3W apparel on DJPremium.com by clicking HERE. Images: HypeBeast

Mayweather-Mosley Agree to Terms, Mosley Signs First

A mixture of an earthquake and blood testing refusal has brought us to one of the biggest fights in recent memory with Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley agreeing to clash in Las Vegas on May 1.

Mayweather advisor Leonard Ellerbe broke the news yesterday to ESPN that the terms were agreed upon and both parties would be signing shortly, with a fight announcement sometime in the upcoming week from New York City.

According to Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole, Mosley flew to Las Vegas yesterday (January 29) and signed his end of the deal.

“Floyd tried to fight the guy everyone thought was the best guy available and we couldn’t get that fight done, so we went to the next guy on the list,” Ellerbe explained in a statement. “As I’ve said many times, when Floyd decided to come back to boxing, he did it to be in major events. He’s going to face all of the top welterweights and one by one, knock them all off.”

In addition, Ellerbe denied the rumors that Mayweather had ever considered fights with Matthew Hatton, Paulie Malignaggi, or Nate Campbell, all smaller fighters competing in the 140 pound division. To their end, only Hatton ever claimed that he was contacted by Team Mayweather.

The full terms of the contract have not been disclosed, but death knell of the Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations, Olympic style random drug testing, was agreed upon by Mosley in the opening talks. Unlike Pacquiao, Mosley has a documented history of steroid usage stemming from two anabolic steroids he admitted taking in preparation for his 2003 rematch with Oscar De La Hoya.

Mosley won the bout, and never failed any drug tests. However, he admitted under oath he took the drugs after being required to give federal testimony in the BALCO labs trial.

It’s not Mayweather-Pacquiao, but this fight is the next biggest event and has the possibility of being an even better fight. Mosley is the naturally bigger/stronger man, harder puncher, and still possesses formidable handspeed. Mayweather is the more accurate puncher and better ring general, being able to adjust ring plans several times during the course of a fight.

When I spoke with Mosley last November, he offered the below reason why he would be the man to give Mayweather his first defeat.

“He knows what the fans and public doesn’t know. I’m the only person that can hit him. We have pretty much that same style except I hit harder,” Mosley told Knockout Nation. “I can hit him, the other guys can’t. When I touch him, just like I did to Margarito, he’s going to sleep. Why fight Sugar Shane when I can fight Pacquiao who can’t hit me? Why fight Sugar Shane when I can fight Marquez, Hatton, or Oscar De La Hoya? It’s unfortunate. It’s his last resort. After I retire and am done with boxing then he’ll fight me. If he fights me, that’ll be his first loss.”

“We both match up in speed. Like I said I have more power than him. I’m more aggressive but I can box, too. I can make him try to come at me as well. I have so many different ways of fighting the guy that makes it so appealing. I’m a complete fighter and he’s knows it.”

On Mayweather’s end, he taunted Mosley last September when I caught up with him right before his bout with Juan Manuel Marquez.

“Shane Mosley! I would say that Shane Mosley represents the 90’s. Now all of sudden after he got 5 or 6 losses now he talking about “yeah, I want to fight Floyd!” Well your career is almost over and now you want to fight me,” Mayweather said. “They all want to talk about Shane’s last fight [with Antonio Margarito], but he beat De La Hoya twice on steroids. So did he win all those championships? Absolutely not, he was on steroids. Now he talks about wanting to fight everyone out there? Shane, your career is over. You’re almost 40! Give it up, Shane!”

“If that was me doing steroids the media would have crucified me. Ah man, they would have thrown me in the fireplace with gasoline draws on. It’s okay when someone else does it, but it’s always taken to the extreme when anything happens with me.”

Mosley definitely represents the fighter with the best chance to bust up and break down Mayweather. Still, I favor Floyd because I feel he can outthink Mosley down the stretch.

Mosley biggest wins have come from simply outfighting or outbrawling his foes with superior strength and speed (De La Hoya, Vargas, Margarito). When that gear doesn’t work and he’s forced to adjust his approach, he becomes hesitant and can be outpointed (Cotto, Forrest, Wright).

Mosley will have to have the best night of his career, and have 3-4 strategies prepared for when Floyd inevitably switches up. With speed and steady but not reckless pressure, Shane will want to drive Mayweather to the ropes where he can work his powerful left hook to the body and overhand right. Floyd has a great check left hook from the ropes (see Hatton), but even a slower Marquez was able to very sparingly catch Mayweather with the right hand off the ropes.

With a granite chin, Mosley will have to come in knowing he’s going to get clipped badly at times, but still be willing to take a counter to a land a stronger shot of his own. Also, his trainer Nazim Richardson would be wise to get Mosley to tighten up his shots. In 2005, Mayweather claimed Mosley would be easy work because for all his speed Shane still looped his punches, making them easy to see and slip.

All in all, expect an intriguing 12 round chess match with Mosley testing Floyd in ways we haven’t seen in years.

Whoever wins stakes their claim as the best welterweight in the world. Let the hype begin.

David Haye-John Ruiz Set for April

Newly crowned WBA heavyweight champion David Haye (23-1, 21 KOs) will make the first defense of his title on April 3 against veteran John Ruiz (44-8-1, 30 Kos).

Ruiz was named the title’s #1 contender following Haye’s 12 round decision win over Nikolai Valuev last November.

Ruiz, known for his mauling style that’s bedeviled many heavyweights over the last decade, is looking to regain his title at 38 years old.

Haye, the former cruiserweight champion and big puncher at that weight, feels Ruiz has the perfect style to show he’s carried his power up to the heavyweight ranks.

 “I will not only beat him but beat him spectacularly and knock him out,” Haye said. “I’m looking forward to getting back to what I do best, throwing my trademark ‘Hayemakers.’ Ruiz is a come-forward fighter so I aim to get at him, break him down, and take him out in good style.”

Ruiz knows Haye will be on the move, and plans to corner the outspoken Brit and make it the tiring, clinch-filled fight that he specializes in.

“David Haye is a quick guy and moves to escape a lot of punches. That’s my main focus, to virtually stay on top of him,” Ruiz said from his Las Vegas training camp. “I will bring the fight to him and make him fight my fight. It has to be close and personal. He loves to move. That’s his main weapon. I have to corner him.”

Ruiz’s last fight was a 7th round TKO over Adnan Serin.

The fight will take place from Manchester’s MEN Arena on April 3.

News and Notes

–          Last night (January 29), former Contender star Jesse Brinkley scored a mild upset in outbrawling Curtis Stevens on ESPN Friday Night Fights to a unanimous decision. Stevens had vowed to KO Brinkley in the first round, but was dropped in the 6th and staggered several times down the stretch. Brinkley now moves closer to an IBF super-middleweight title shot against Lucian Bute

–          Former WBO 130 pound champion Jorge Barrios has been charged with murder for killing a pregnant woman in a car accident last weekend and fleeing the scene. At press time, he’s not entered a plea yet.

–          Roger Mayweather has pleaded not guilty to coercion and battery-strangulation charges over an incident last August with a female boxer he trained. The trial is set to begin June 1.

–          Top Rank promoter Bob Arum informed media and fans that they can “go f### themselves,” and Juan Manuel Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa would not face each other until 2011 after “cleaning out” the featherweight division.

–          Evander Holyfield vs. Francois Brotha has been rescheduled for March 6

–          Undefeated WBC 140 champ Devon Alexander (19-0, 12 Kos) and IBF champ Juan Urango (22-2-1, 17 Kos) will unify on March 6.

–          Wladimir Klitchsko (53-3, 47 Kos) defends his IBF/WBO titles against Eddie Chambers (35-1, 18 Kos) on March 20.

Boxing Truth Radio Show Tonight

The good people at Boxing Truth Radio (theboxingtruth.com) will have their weekly show tonight at 9PM EST. Check the archives from last week to hear a hilarious interview with Roger Mayweather going in on Manny Pacquiao and accusing him of steroid abuse! You can hear the stream here.

Live Videos by Ustream

 vs.

Mythical Matchup of the Week: Tommy Hearns vs. Felix Trinidad

Quick, compile a list of the hardest punchers ever from welterweight through junior middleweight. Odds are Tommy Hearns and Felix Trinidad will be two names very high on that list.

About 20 years apart, both fighters were feared and devastating punchers in those divisions.

It took Trinidad only 3 years following his 1990 debut to pick up the IBF title, with a surgical 2 round beatdown of Maurice Blocker. He strung off 15 title defenses through 1999, winning 13 by knockout. The only 2 who survived were a past prime but cagey Pernell Whitaker, and Oscar De La Hoya.

A stalking puncher, Trinidad regular forced exchanges and discombobulated foes with his heavy left hook.

That power went up to 154 pounds, where he ruined the careers of David Reid and Fernando Vargas in 2000 with career highlight wars that saw both opponents absorb prolonged beatings. Vargas never regained his previous form, and Reid was forced to retire by the following year due to eye problems.

Like Tito, it took Hearns only 3 years to win his first title. He ended Hall Famer Pipino Cuevas’ career as an elite fighter with a crushing 2nd round KO in 1980, picking up the WBA welterweight title.

He made 3 successful defenses before running into another all-time great in Sugar Ray Leonard, losing by TKO14 while ahead on the cards in 1981.

Citing weight issues, he immediately jumped to junior middleweight. Now comfortable, he dominated his bouts there, going 8-0, with 4 KOs. Among his victims were the slick Wilfred Benitez by decision, and possibly the greatest one punch KO of all time over pound for pound legend Roberto Duran.

His run at that weight would propel him to a classic war with Marvin Hagler at middleweight. His skill, frame, and power would allow him to move all the way up to cruiserweight and still win belts well into the 90s.Against Hearns, Trinidad would have a daunting task in front of him. The Puerto Rican legend was prone to having defensive lapses, suffering multiple knockdowns during his 90’s prime. To win, Trinidad would have to swarm and get under Hearns’ 6-inch reach advantage to hopefully land first in exchanges at mid-range and on the inside.

The problem is that Hearns was so skilled that the only fighters who beat him in his best years had to eat huge bombs and punishment to land their own. Leonard got a detached retina for his efforts and was forced into semi-retirement for walking down down the Hitman after being outboxed early. Hagler, all-time great middleweight, was stung early in the first round and had a fight-threatening cut by before bullying his way to victory. Iran Barkley was battered from pillar to post before landing a home run shot.

Could Trinidad endure that type of fire to take out Hearns?

Felix definitely has the power to KO Tommy, but not the skill or durability. Hearns will drill him with hard jabs and straight rights from the outside. Hearns was a good mover, and would constantly have Trinidad changing directions and preventing him from getting set (like De La Hoya did before gassing late in their 1999 superfight). The hard shots would eventually break Tito’s guard and drop him, or he would get caught trying to lunge in with his left.

In his prime, whenever he was dropped Trinidad got up to viciously stop his opponent. And if a foul was needed (ie. a low blow) to regain control, so be it. However, with Hearns after 2-3 knockdowns Felix Trinidad would be in no condition to get up.

My prediction in this exciting mythical shootout is Tommy Hearns by TKO in 6 rounds over a game Felix Trinidad, who gets saved by his corner.

Your thoughts?

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