Saturday, December 04, 2004

Well well well...something to advertise for, a lecture about Ancient Egypt and Black Civilisation, also dealing with Cheikh Anta Diop works, it's Saturday December 11th, salle SAMIRA, 2 bvd De Gaulle( between Place Thiers and Eglise Saint Paul), in Tours, at 6.30 pm, presented by Ebene Association, Mateta, featuring Koffi "Ousir" Adjavoin as main lecturer, everybody's welcomed

Thursday, November 04, 2004

NWA sang "One less Bitch to worry"? you guess what could come next if you change some words... ok here's a link with some knowledge http://www.daveyd.com and there read what Paris has to say. In hardcore realm some talked about "Boston crew"( SSD, The Freeze, Jerry's Kids, Gang Green, Negative FX, DYS....) well I would say Senator John Kerry doesn't belong to the Boston crew and I wonder which kids did have their say? Spoiled brats in battalions?

Monday, November 01, 2004

"If you really like this funky beat, let's everybody say "hell Yeaaaaahhhh"!" so I put a link for my homie Smooth Operator who's got a radio broadcast called "Smoothshit" dealing with West side/ Dirty South http://www.rfpp.net and I also say hello to Metal Force crews (they know what it's all about)

Saturday, October 30, 2004

A public announcement for a kind of "VIP" party, presented by CLOCHARD INTERNATIONAL (no kidding?! only French readers could understand) with FATBEATS records amidst the sponsors, it's about LEE QUINONES limited edition vintage collection(records between 1974 and 1984), in New York, on November 4th. Dress code please , guesting this are D-Stroy (former Arsonist) MCing, Grand Master Flash, Tony Touch, Eleven DJing. Where does it happen exactly? Pressure, 110 University Place (between East 12/13th streets) from 9pm to midnight. For more info email at this address events@clochard-international.com

Thursday, October 21, 2004

Some news about "Le Monde Panafricain" & Afrique Promo Culture at Nantes, they organise a meeting/ lecture about the late Mongo Beti (Cameroonese writer, his books are strongly advised for people who want to understand what's happening in Cameroon and Africa in general, "after the independences"),when, Saturday, the 23rd of October, 2 pm, where, Nantes, Manufacture des Tabacs, for more info call 02.51.72.06.70. What else, 37 years ago Huey and Bobby founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, and we should remember the fallen, Ernesto Che Guevara (October 9th, 1967) & Thomas Sankara (October 15th, 1987)

Thursday, September 23, 2004

Salutations to Idriss Kameni who stopped a penalty shot by Ronaldo, congratulations to Sammy who plays with FC Barcelona, and big F*** YOU to Winfried Schaeffer & friends, what else Rick James passed away, the creator of "Superfreak" & "Give It To Me", the punk funk icon (I would better say glam funk rocker) and I also heard Russ Meyer died but it's another story hahahaha!

Thursday, July 08, 2004

There will be a festival in the Bahama Islands featuring Confunkshun, Rene (of Rene & Angela), SOS Band, Midnight Star, Lakeside and Robert Downey (comedian),from August 5th to 9th. Prices are high ($250 for the 4 days) but you can ply golf and spend time as you want there

Saturday, June 19, 2004

Well sad news as Ray Charles died, and fortunately this bastard of Ronald Reagan also went to another world maybe he rejoices with Ian Stuart of Skrewdriver and other KKK/ nazi cronies, the real meaning of "dead pres"

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Some stuff from the FMSILIC, an organisation born to support and help Cameroonese soccer team well seems I cannot "cut & paste" so I sum up, FMSILIC is of course against FIFA decision about the famous Cameroon Puma wear (UniQit). For more about this I suggest you to go to their website below...

FMSILIC

Monday, May 10, 2004

Some news from the Eazy E camp, Lil E his son and one of the women Mr Eric Wright Sr used to live with started a foundation

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

This is something from Davey D's website, just read:

Gangstaz, Gunz and Half Naked Girlz

Min. Paul Scott


Baby Got back, but Baby needs backbone/Get off the
video screen and put some clothes on…
Brother Khamisi (Revolutionary Son)


Back in tha day, a radio program director told me
that heavy metal was marketed to 16 year old white
boys who were mad because they couldn’t get a
girlfriend.
Fifteen years later, we must ask what is the marketing
scheme behind Sex Guns and Hip Hop.

I ’m not saying that some Brotha with a bad rap is
somewhere sitting alone in his bedroom pumpin’ G-Unit
while throwing darts at a picture of his ex
girlfriend screamin’ ‘Take that you
slut…Westside!!!!!’ But we do have to look at the way
sista’s are portrayed in videos today through the eyes
of marketing executives who spend millions of dollars
psychoanalyzing Brotha’s in order to pinpoint our
weaknesses and find ways to exploit us.

Now be honest, Brothers, if you had to choose between
looking at a centerfold of the sista from the Outkast
video and reading this article, which one would you
choose? (That’s what I thought) So they are experts at
appealing to our attraction to our Nubian Queens.
Instead of denying our attraction to beautiful black
women we must learn to discipline our natural urges.
In other words we can’t let the size of the booty
blind us to the beauty of Afrikan Brothers and Sisters
working together to ensure the future of little Black
children.

Also, we can never look at any issue concerning Black
folks without putting the discussion in the context of
the battle of Afrikan people against the agents of
white supremacy. Since the Hip Hop Nation has all but
called a truce with the white power structure, this
issue will not be raised from those who view reality
from a purely 'hip hop-centric' point of view.

Many of the videos today feature a beautiful black
woman prancing around while 20 Brotha’s are rapping,
‘Get off my block before I shoot, you , fool !‘ Those
of us who are not sleeping while standing up must pose
the question’ what in the world does a half naked
sista have to do with drug dealin’ and Brotha’s
blastin’ Brotha’s?’ This is an obvious attempt to kill
two birds with one stone; a case of cross promotion of
negative stereotypes.

Historically , it has always been a goal of white
America to portray the sons and daughters of Africa as
animals lacking souls, culture and moral character.
So Black women have been portrayed as disparate over
sexed, Ho’s and Black men have been portrayed as blood
thirsty rapists and sexual predators.

So when a diabolical tool of oppression meets with a
billion dollar marketing scheme the result is what you
get gyrating across your favorite music video channel
24 hours a day.

Back in the day when the 2 Live Crew had Sista’s
'movin’ sometin’' to the sound of 'Me So Horny' the
excuse was 'Well. What about them white girls that be
all up in tha videos, HUH?' But in 2004, the white
video vixen is more or less, a thing of the pass.
While Heather White has long since traded in her
G-string for a government job, Shorty Doo Wop is still
holding down her 9 (PM) to 5 at tha strip joint.

The reason being that the entertainment industry has
found their niche market and will exploit it until the
well runs dry, until there is no such thing as a
normal relationship between a Black man and a Black
woman.

With thousands of Black men in jail , the future of
the Black family is in danger. Most black men live
everyday of their lives with the fear of winding up in
jail before night fall, whether guilty or innocent.
The music industry has capitalized off of this fear by
manufacturing the 'we don’t love them Ho’s mentality.'
For the Brotha who is looking at twenty years in the
slamma a Sista becomes nothing but a quick hit while
he is out on bail. Why market a video concept about
long lasting caring relationships when you have
created an environment where most of your market will
be spending 20 years of quality time with Big Bubba in
cell block D ?

Where the saying that made a Sista’s blood boil back
in tha day was ‘women are only good for two places;
the kitchen and the bedroom;' in Hip Hop, for the ride
or die chick, they are also good for hiding a crack
stash and working the strip club. (How many children
out there who have to visit their incarcerated mother
once a week because she caught a conspiracy charge for
being in the car with drug Dealin’ Darrell?)

What would happen if we turned this Mother’s Day into
Black Queen Restoration Day ? What if Afrikan
Brothers and Sisters across the country joined with
sisters like those of Spelman College or LaFonda Jones
(Operation ’hood Freedom, Durham NC) and demanded more
positive images in videos.

What if an army of Angela Davis/Assata Shakur, kente
cloth head wrap wearing Sisters rolled up on rappers
like Trina and 'made' them understand the damage done
to the self esteem of young Black girls through songs
such as 'Big Ole D@### ?'

As the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles
begins with one step. Isn’t it time that we started
steppin’ in the name of love for Black women?

Minister Paul Scott represents the Messianic Afrikan
Nation in Durham NC. To join the Messianic Afrikan
Nation contact (919) 949-4352 email
minpaulscott@ yahoo.com
Web site: members.blackplanet.com/THE-MYD

For the last "Maggot Brains" radio show as co host DJ Juan Velez Alvarez Pablo Don De La Vega is held hostage at the Celebrity Farm, we may be alone "as one" for an exclusive non interview with the "notorious Black President " of Just Justice association back from the States and a report about independant American rap featuring Vice Prez Remi, always into something with my trombipulated genetically unorganized twisted mind of yours. More seriously, Paris' Guerillafunk label is on a mission, "resurrecting" true conscious old school Golden Era rap, after Public Enemy, it will be up to the mighty MC Ren of NWA fame to get an album released. Damn, Paris, you also should work with my homie Spice 1, and Digital Underground, and...It also seems there's a new AWOL issue ready, remember AWOL is a rap pro zine dealing with militant music and related to MOVE organisation. Uncle Jam wants you for some action, and Aunt Assata gets a big salute. Remember also that for Mumia Abu Jamal it's not 17 but 22 years of Hell ( this line is for fans of the Partisans, related to their song "17 years of hell") and I must thank and greet DAL BASSO organisation

Saturday, May 01, 2004

Well it seems it's not enough, Winfried Schaeffer, Rigobert Song and former Bidoung co workers must get out the way too, judging by the shameful defeat against Bulgaria. Something far more serious, I put a link about Iraqi situation Iraqi stories

Saturday, April 24, 2004

BIG BIG BIG NEWS, the biggest corruptor of Cameroon team (soccer) is out, sacked, Mr Bidoung Mkpatt got ousted by President Biya, hopefully it will restart a declining team, and people like Rigobert Song must also leave the national team!
It seems another incident happened with Dead Prez (arrested again); here is a link for you about Cool Freddy Jay (where are the pictures with Julia Chanel? just joking) Cool Freddy Jay

Monday, April 19, 2004

The info came too late but DJ Vic & DJ PF Cuttin' (from rap act Blahzay Blahzay, yes those who stole a Drixxé(from Triptik) beat) were spinnin' on Fatbeats store yesterday, it's in Holland (Amsterdam) FATBEATS

Thursday, April 15, 2004

Yesterday at evening there was an interesting lecture about the weird and "naughty" relations between France and Africa (no it's not about sex you pervert, hahahaha!), here is a link conclusions de la commission d'enquête citoyenne de l'association "Survie" this is about Rwanda genocide

Saturday, April 03, 2004

Dead Prez news, just read below....

CONCERT & CONFERENCE TO FOCUS ON THE PLIGHT OF POLITICAL PRISONERS

Boston, Massachusetts (April 2, 2004) -- A concert and conference on political prisoners called SET THE CAPTIVES’S FREE will take place on April 16 and 17 at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, in the Lipke Auditorium, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Dorchester, Massachusetts.

A powerful concert, featuring Dead Prez, Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo, FTP, Blackout Boston, The Foundation, Curtis King, Simon & Wagner, Reflect & Strengthen, VCR, and PRESENTE!, will kick-off the UMass/Boston conference on Friday, April 16, 7-11P.M.

Focussing on political prisoners, prisoners of war, and racially profiled detainees in the United States, the conference will take place on Saturday, April 17, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. and it will feature workshops and presentations by:

Pam Africa (MOVE)
Fred Hampton, Jr.
Linda Evans Russell Shoates, III,
Netdahe Williams
Rod Coronado
Rakhshanda Saleem
Rawan Barakat
New England Committee to Defend Palestine
Kamel Bell
Michelle Morales
Soffiyah Elijah
Nancy Murray (Patriot Act & Homeland Security)
Prof. Robert Hall
Nalda Vigezzi (The Cuban 5)
Jean Day (Leonard Peltier Defense)

The concert costs $15, the conference costs $10 or you can attend both days for $20. Those 15 & under can attend for FREE. For further information, call (617) 288-1433 or email: freedomnow20042000@yahoo.com The concert and conference are sponsored by The William Joiner Center/UMASS Boston, The Jericho Movement, Boston Political Prisoner Defense Committee, Mobarezeh Collective, Int’l Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu Jamal, American Friends Service Committee, and PRESENTE!

Friday, April 02, 2004

Some news from the GuerillaFunk camp, Conscious Daughters album as well as T-Kash's one and the PE stuff are about to get released this year, and the Hard Truth Soldiers comp' either. And Guerilla funk recs considers the release of a dvd featuring among other things Paris video clips
Some news in French and about France, especially Arabian people with too much hope in "french socialism", just read it...

La preuve par Mouloud : « Sois Beur et tais-toi ! »
> LES SOCIALISTES « INDIGÈNOCRATES » BARRENT LA ROUTE À MOULOUD AOUNIT AU
> CONSEIL RÉGIONAL
> par Vincent Geisser
> jeudi 1er avril 2004
>
> Ceux qui ne croient pas au « miracle républicain » en sont pour leurs frais.
> Au premier tour des élections régionales, Mouloud Aounit, secrétaire général
> du MRAP et tête de liste « Gauche populaire et citoyenne » (PCF et société
> civile) en Seine-Saint-Denis a réussi à rassembler 14,3 % des suffrages (50
> 000 voix) dans le département, faisant le meilleur score du Parti à
> l'échelon national et se payant même le luxe de devancer le candidat de
> l'UDF, « ô combien médiatique », André Santini (11,6 %). Pourtant, au-delà
> des apparences du « miracle électoral », c'est bien le travail de terrain
> qui a payé. Rompant avec la logique du « Beur exotique » et de l' « Arabe de
> service », héritée de l'indigénat, le succès de la liste conduite par
> Mouloud Aounit repose sur une véritable campagne de proximité auprès des
> électeurs de toutes origines sociales et culturelles. Car, précisément,
> Mouloud Aounit, refuse de s'enfermer dans une logique néo-coloniale de type
> « les Arabes parlent aux Arabes », préférant développer un message citoyen
> et social, loin de toute tentative d'instrumentalisation communautaire. On
> connaît, par ailleurs, les positions courageuses que M. Aounit a exprimé,
> ces derniers temps, sur des questions aussi diverses que la dénonciation de
> l'islamophobie ambiante, la critique de l'exclusion des jeunes filles
> voilées des établissements scolaires publics et la remise en cause des
> dérives sécuritaires à l'encontre des jeunes des cités. Et c'est
> probablement, cette démarche résolument universaliste et non clientéliste
> qui a mobilisé de nombreux électeurs de Seine-Saint-Denis en « rupture »
> avec le système politique traditionnel. Dans plusieurs communes populaires,
> caractérisées habituellement par une très forte abstention électorale, la
> liste de Mouloud Aounit a, en effet, crevé les plafonds : 24,7 % à Bagnolet,
> 28,8 % au Blanc-Mesnil, 34,3 % à Stains.., des scores rêvés que le PCF
> n'avait plus obtenu depuis très longtemps, pouvant faire croire à certains
> que les banlieues parisiennes sont redevenues « les banlieues rouges »
> d'antan. Des anciens OS des usines Renault aux diplômés victimes de
> discrimination à l'emploi, en passant par les cadres associatifs et les
> jeunes frappés par l'exclusion sociale, Mouloud Aounit a suscité un
> véritable phénomène d'identification positive : de nombreux électeurs fâchés
> depuis de longues années avec la « politique des partis » se sont reconnus
> en lui, créant ainsi une occasion unique pour la gauche d'Ile-de-France de
> se réconcilier définitivement avec les cités populaires.
> Mais c'est bien là que réside le problème majeur : une certaine gauche
> socialiste, nostalgique de la gestion coloniale, héritière du «
> national-molletisme » (l'affaire de Suez en 1956, la défense de l'Algérie
> française.), semble davantage soucieuse de « mater » les cités peuplées de
> « sauvageons » que de se réconcilier avec elles. Il est vrai, qu'un Malek
> Boutih (ancien président de SOS-Racisme) ou qu'une Fadela Amara (présidente
> de « Ni putes, ni soumises »), tenant le discours que veulent entendre leurs
> « maîtres politiques » apparaissent plus rassurants pour les états-majors
> partisans qu'un Mouloud Aounit, connu pour son franc-parler et sa critique
> du « politiquement correct ». Résultat des courses électorales : sous la
> pression de certains potentats du Parti socialiste, nostalgiques de
> l'indigénocratie, Mouloud Aounit a du renoncer à la tête de liste au
> deuxième tour des élections et, malgré son score exceptionnel, ne se verra
> probablement attribuer aucune responsabilité de poids au sein du Conseil
> régional.
> L'Arabe a voulu s'émanciper sans la caution d'un « parrain républicain » :
> il a été puni !
> Cédant aux exigences particularistes de certains « groupes » et « leaders »
> de son parti (le PS), Jean-Paul Huchon, président sortant du Conseil
> régional d'Ile-de-France, a clairement signifié à Mouloud Aounit, qu'en
> raison de ses positions trop dérangeantes (islamophobie, Palestine et
> foulard islamique), il ne se verrait confier aucune responsabilité dans la
> future assemblée régionale. A ce niveau, l'on peut légitimement se demander
> : qui dans notre « belle République laïque » fait du communautarisme ?
> La morale de cette histoire électorale : « Quand on est un Arabe et que l'on
> veut faire de la politique en France, l'on doit se comporter comme une
> créature exotique ou fermer sa gueule ! »
> Vincent Geisser
>
> Vincent Geisser est chercheur à l'Institut de recherches et d'études sur le
> monde arabe et musulman (CNRS) et enseigne à l'Institut d'études politiques
> D'Aix-en-Provence. Il est également l'auteur de :
>
> a.. La nouvelle islamophobie, Editions la Découverte, 2003
> b.. Ethnicité républicaine (Presse de Sciences-Po, 1997),
> c.. Diplômes maghrébins d'ici et d'ailleurs (CNRS Editions, 2000)
> d.. Le Syndrome autoritaire. Sociologie de la Tunisie de Bourguiba à Ben
> Ali (en collaboration , Presse de Sciences po, 2003)

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

For all you readers, first of all check the PE website "Bring The Noize" there are several radio shows, great stuff, then Dead Prez "Revolutionary But Gangsta" will be released at the end of March (30th) on Sony/ Columbia, then another thing, I've my own radio show in my hometown, it's called "Maggot Brains" of course I pay tribute to George Clinton & Funkadelic but also to Bad Brains this huge, marvelous (at least from 79 to 84) punk act. I played both, you guess, "Maggot Brain" & "Icka Prick" for Parliamentfunkadelic thang and 2 whole shows devoted to Bad Brains

Monday, February 23, 2004

To end it, there was a great reggae show Saturday night, featuring Strate 4 Ward as backing band and several D jays or Sing Jays (I mean ragamuffin style) like Brahim (remember "Dans Quel Monde On Vit" , and he prepares his second album) Asha B, Hamine, Jornick, Nassadjah(from Comores Islands) and Mighty Kila (before you had 2 hours of African Heritage sound system, performed by the owners of the shop African Heritage, it was mostly old school reggae, and I recognized the original version of a Daddy Nuttea hit single, which is of course way better than DN one. The Nuttea song is called "Elle Vit Sa Vie" for those who want to know
Ok, some news, maybe you know about Dieudonne Mbala Mbala and the way (far)right wing considers him, after all remember the second row of French presidential elections, having to choose between "Le bruit et l'odeur" (noise and smell, it refers to a racist quotation by candidate Jacques Chirac, sampled by Zebda) and "le détail" (detail, another quotation by Jean Marie Le Pen), we know where we're living! Dieudonne refers to Martin Luther King, I strongly disagree, now it's about Malcolm X and a Black Liberation Army, no more time to lose...
Malgré l'annulation de sa représentation,
> Le rassemblement se fera à partir de 19 H devant l'Olympia - 28, Bd
> des Capucines (M° Opéra).
>
> COMITÉ DE SOUTIEN
>
> A DIEUDONNÉ
>
> ---------
>
> EXPOSÉ DES MOTIFS
>
>
> Communiqué
>
> Le 1er décembre 2003, un animateur de France 3, Marc-Olivier Fogiel ,
> recevait le « bouffon » Dieudonné. A la suite d'une prestation du
> comédien sur le thème de la situation scandaleuse et barbare imposée
> par l'Etat d'Israël aux Palestiniens, une véritable machination a été
> montée, tendant à le faire passer pour un antisémite.
>
> Curieusement , il se trouve que des gens, et pas des moindres,
> soutiennent cette machination, orchestrée, vraisemblablement, par des
> organisations juives d'extrême droite.
>
> Une instruction a été ouverte contre Dieudonné par le Parquet de
> Paris, sans doute sous le fondement de l'appel à la haine raciale.
>
> Plus encore, M. Alex Moïse s'est déclaré sur Europe 1, comme
> représentant la fédération d'une organisation sioniste de France qui,
> elle-même, serait une émanation d'une organisation sioniste mondiale,
> regroupant tous les mouvements sionistes sur notre planète". Il a
> reconnu "?être intervenu auprès du casino et de la mairie de
> Deauville?" et avoir obtenu l'annulation du spectacle de Dieudonné en
> août 2003 déjà. "? je me vante du fait que ma démarche ait marché,
> bien entendu?" "< /I> je me vante que quelqu'un comme vous n'est pas
> pu faire son spectacle". "Dieudonné est un Le Pen noir". Et à la
> question précise de l'animateur de radio: "Est-ce que pour vous, Alex
> Moïse, il faut donner la parole à Dieudonné ? La réponse a été claire
> et nette: " Pas plus qu'à Le Pen" "?je pense qu'aujourd'hui il y a
des
> choses qui doivent être évacuées effectivement". Une menace ?
>
> Des questions se posent
>
> Comment, tolérer l'exorbitant pouvoir d'un tel groupe religieux, dans
> un pays qui, aujourd'hui réaffirme sa laïcité et ne cesse de clamer
> son attachement :
>
> - A la République ?
>
> - A l'indépendance de la justice ?
>
> - Au refus hypocrite du communautarisme ?
>
> Qui donc est derrière ce groupe qui a le pouvoir de décider de qui a
> le droit ou non d'exercer son métier dans ce pays ? Le pouvoir de
> faire plier nos autorités politiques et administratives sous prétexte
> de défendre une politique, mondialement contestée au demeurant, de
> pays étrangers, Israël et les USA en l'occurrence ? Quel est ce lobby
> qui bafoue nos lois ?
>
> Comment , nos autorités, avec l'appui de certains médias,
> peuvent-elles se sentir choquées par les propos de Dieudonné qui lui,
> courageusement, condamne les tueries du Moyen-Orient ?
>
> Comment , aucune d'entre elles n'ose clamer, n'ose crier son
> éc?urement devant les propos négrophobes, tenus dans les prétendus
SMS
> et effectivement diffusés dans une autre émission de ce même M.
Fogiel
> ? Rien n'est inventé, M. Fogiel a avoué ses manipulations.
>
> N'ayons pas la mémoire courte.
>
> On a parlé en France, à la télévision d'Etat de l'odeur des noirs
> comme on a parlé en leurs temps, des odeurs du quartier de la Goutte
> d'or dans le 18° Arrondissement de Paris, et les corps constitués ne
> s'émeuvent aucunement ? Sont-ils aussi sous influence ?
>
> Est-ce tolérable qu'en France aussi, ce pays des Droits de l'Homme,
> que maghrébins, musulmans, africains et descendants d'africains
> souffrent quotidiennement du racisme, de discriminations dans le
> travail, le logement, la culture, entre autres domaines économiques
et
> sociaux sans que cela n'émeuve de la même manière nos politiques
ainsi
> que certains médias et associations de la société civile française ?
>
> L'opinion publique s'interroge
>
> Il y a t-il donc deux poids et deux mesures selon la religion ou le
> groupe ethnique auquel on appartient ?
>
> Il y a t-il une religion élue ? Au-dessus de toutes les autres ?
>
> Dieudonné lui, a répondu clairement : " Le racisme doit être combattu
> au même titre que l'antisémitisme. Il n'y a pas de hiérarchie dans la
> souffrance." Des propos sans équivoque.
>
> Et ceux qui, lâchement, dans l'ombre, tirent les ficelles,
> ignorent-ils qu'il n'y a pas "les juifs en général" et qu'il y a
aussi
> des juifs victimes de cette société d'exclusion que nous dénonçons ?
> Qu'il y a aussi des juifs qui condamnent la politique palestinienne
de
> M. Sharon ? Veut-on nous faire prendre des vessies pour des lanternes
> ?
>
> Alors où est le problème ? Et qu'est-ce que c'est que cette polémique
?
>
> Nous avons déjà déjoué ce stratagème à la Conférence Mondiale Contre
> le Racisme de Durban en 2001, malgré la collusion de certains pays
> occidentaux dont la France et ce même axe U.S.A./Israël. Dans ce pays
> au lourd passé (et présent) colonial, les victimes doivent être
> respectées et de véritables mesures doivent être prises pour
combattre
> l'occultation.
>
> C'est le sens que va prendre l'action du Comité de Soutien à
> Dieudonné...
>
> Exigeons que :
>
> * La lumière soit faite sur cette machination
> * Soit dénoncé le lynchage médiatique et raciste dont est victime
> Dieudonné et à travers lui toute la communauté noire.
> * L'opinion publique soit informée des agressions physiques,
> morales, spirituelles et matérielles dont les noirs sont victimes
> chaque jour en France
> * Les plus hautes autorités de la France condamnent les
> responsables de ces agissements
> * Soit impulsée une politique d'égalité des devoirs, mais aussi
des
> droits pour les femmes et les hommes quels qu'ils soient.
>

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Sadly, one of my idols is dead, Ron O'Neale aka Youngblood Priest in "Superfly" is no longer there. I reproduce an article taken in Davey D's website

Superfly's Ron O'Neal Dead at 66
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By now people are probably aware of the passing of actor Ron O'Neal who is best known for his role as a drug dealer named Priest in the landmark movie 'Superfly'. As this article below points out when the movie came out in the early 70s it was ahuge deal. O'Neal himself went on to obtain cult-like status in our community. His legacy lasted all the way through the 80s and 90s within Hip Hop.

'Pusherman' which was the signature song of Superfly was sampled more times or redone by more artists then I can count. O'Neal himself was featured in videos and more recently a song with the Bay Area's Rappin' 4Tay.

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As 'Superfly,' Ron O'Neal Played All Too Well

By Wil Haygood
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 17, 2004; Page C01

We rushed -- Flan, Olen, Bubbles, Tutu, Macaroni, my sisters, myself --
downtown to the Southern Theatre in Columbus, Ohio, in 1972 to see
"Superfly." Dressed in Sunday-ish outfits, we were excited about a movie
everyone was already talking about. It seemed, in a strange and sad and
curious way, to be a documentary about own lives and misguided dreams amid
the urban landscape on the east side of town. In our part of Columbus,
pimps and prostitutes and drug dealers and con men were not reviled but
nearly celebrated. A hustler could make 10 times the money of one of those
Negro men stumbling out of the Buckeye Steel plant.

The Southern Theatre showed black movies, and for "Superfly" the line
swept
down East Main Street. What did we care of the distance, even in cinema
lore, between hero and smooth-talking villain? We were hungry for movies
with black faces. Doris Day, Rock Hudson and Jerry Lewis were good enough,
at least at one time they were. But this was now, the lip of the '70s.
Giveus cool. Give us blaxploitation then. We were not academics making quick
judgments about cartoonish characters. We were young, and youth has its
own lens.

That year, that moment, "Superfly" became an event -- and a kind of
lifestyle if you were prone to such dramatics. The plot consisted of
Priest, a celebrated drug dealer, trying to leave the business, but not
before a final deal must be executed. The dilemma gave him the aura of a
man forced to fight a darker nemesis than himself. The movie drew fans
coast to coast, startling the studio that produced it.

In the role of Priest, Ron O'Neal -- who died Wednesday at age 66 of
cancer
-- was seen fashionably dashing across the silver screen. He was notable
for his long hair, his long coat, his devilish eyes, playing the drug
dealer with a pimp lifestyle (plenty of women) as hero. He became an
iconic
figure to me and many of my friends.

We even knew he had briefly attended Ohio State University in Columbus!
Family friends would regale me with tales of having seen him around town.
Not that I could ever verify such claims.

Those exploitation movies had "cartoonish" names, sure enough. But we had
such names in real life: Too Sweet, Stinky Lynch, Precious Herb; they hung
out with my brother Macaroni, and they all idolized Priest, who gave the
world those colorful coats, wide-brimmed hats, the pimpmobile. (Shortly
after the "Superfly" craze exploded, the window of Lee's department store,
on Mount Vernon Avenue, was crowded with "Superfly" fashions. I didn't
have
to spend a dime inside Lee's for such clothing. My sister, Diane,
hand-sewed my maxi coat.)

I was 17 at the time. Macaroni, not long released from prison, was a pimp,
a bona fide pimp, and a drug user. And how silly and tragic it seems now,
how silly and tragic it was then -- and would become -- especially so when
he wound up behind bars at San Quentin penitentiary. And yet, how
strangely
worshiped he was in the edgy glow of 1972, with Ron O'Neal as "Superfly."
"Aren't you Mac's brother?" I'd get asked all the time. Yes yes yes. Shame
on me: I glowed in his glow.

O'Neal would lament, in later years, when the roles dried up, that he had
been typecast. He would go on to appear in other movies, namely "The
Master
Gunfighter" (1975), "When a Stranger Calls" (1979), "A Force of One"
(1979). There would be plenty of TV guest appearances, on such shows as "A
Different World" and "Frank's Place." But, like William Powell and "The
Thin Man," Lon Chaney and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," it was forever
Ron
O'Neal and "Superfly."

Some of the story of "Superfly" -- considered a cult classic now -- and
O'Neal involves the climb of the black actor in the late '60s and early
'70s. Start with the Karamu House, a theatrical training ground in
Cleveland, where O'Neal studied, where Langston Hughes once wrote and
worked, where Emmy Award-winning actor Robert Guillaume honed his skills.
Fumbling around Columbus after college, looking every which way for a
steady job, I joined a community theater group. The founder was Carol Khan
White, a product of the Karamu House. On lazy evenings, in between
rehearsals, I and others would plead with her to tell us stories about
O'Neal, and she would, and we'd sit with something approaching awe in our
eyes. (My grandfather, with whom I lived, thought a boy with a college
degree thinking of acting was a fool, and a fool, and a fool. I would not
become another Ron O'Neal. )

Blacks were rarely seen on the screen in the 1960s, which kept them out of
consideration for big studio movies, even as the studio heads complained
that they had no "film" on them. The black exploitation films, wildly
uneven as they were, gave a bevy of actors -- O'Neal's "Superfly" co-star
Sheila Frazier, Bernie Casey, Lou Gossett, Pam Grier, Max Julien, Calvin
Lockhart -- film roles. O'Neal had languished in the theater before his
"Superfly" break.

It was, however, more than O'Neal's hypnotic performance that gave the
movie such staying power. The "Superfly" soundtrack, by Curtis Mayfield,
was flat-out haunting. Certain singles from that album qualify as mighty
essays on the futility of a criminal life: "Pusher Man," "Freddie's Dead,"
"Little Child Runnin' Wild," "No Thing on Me." Mayfield sang with a
falsetto voice, and would come to lament that many misunderstood the depth
of his album: It was an anthem against drugs and street life; he sang
about the futility of such living.

How fruitless to attach a movie to lives lived. To lifestyles chosen. The
"Superfly" lifestyle began to frighten me shortly after the movie came out
when it appeared as if certain members of my family had taken it directly
from the screen to the street. (Not that I was totally innocent. The one
lady I ever asked in my life if she knew of a way we might make some money
together slapped me, coldly, on my grandfather's porch. My eyes welled up
and I turned away lest she see the water in them.)

So what sang to my sisters and brothers from Ron O'Neal's celebrated movie
captured me, too, but only for a fleeting moment. I released myself from
that movie's grip to roll down other roads -- college, books, a steady
job. As well, I was long haunted by the memory of having been taken inside the

Franklin County jail at age 14 to visit my brother Macaroni.

Still, I listen to the wondrous "Superfly" soundtrack now and then and
become alternately jumpy and melancholy. Melancholy because it makes me
think of family: The sister, Geraldine, who died a year ago after decades
(starting in the '70s) of drug abuse. The sister, Wonder, in and out of
drug rehab, currently unemployed. I thought she had kicked it; she swore.
The brother, Harry, in and out of drug rehab. I thought he had kicked the
heroin; he swore. The brother, Macaroni, Superfly, in and out of jail
(just released yet again mere months ago). I thought, as did his wife Helen, he
had kicked it; he promised.

It was just a movie. And may Ron O'Neal be remembered for the way he
pleaded with anyone listening not to follow in the twisting unpredictable
road of his Superfly

Saturday, January 17, 2004

I reproduce here (no bootlegging intended, it's from Davey D's website) an article made by Keith Murray (from EPMD posse if you remember, with Redman, K Solo and so on) about jails in USA...just read

Rapper Kieth Murray on the Prison system of America
By Keith Murray
members3.boardhost.com/pl.../4558.html


A person gets locked up, he has to pay money to his lawyers, while the lawyers break bread, so to speak, with the system. Jails have contracts with food companies, making those companies serious money. Prisoners work while incarcerated for below minimum wageÐas low as seven cents per hour and their productivity helps run the jail. The little money they do receive goes back into the system because they spend their meager earnings on the products that the jails are selling.
The court system is putting juveniles in jail for life, treating these young people literally like animals. The justice system failed me. I have no trust and confidence in the system as far as I can throw it. I think the government and the courts are cynical, democrats and republicans go back and forth fighting for the power while we (the citizens) are in the middle of the brawl, only to be misused, discriminated against and deprived of our basic civil rights.

The system locks up individuals and gives them hard time (depending on your skin tone), justifying it by claiming that incarceration is cleaning up the streets. Prison is a harsh realm of negative emotions, which gives the individual on lockdown social anxiety and a constant feeling of unpredictability. They prey on our ignorance, divide and sacrifice our overall growth and intellectual development in life, creating a domino effect. When a person is locked up, it is not only affecting him, it is also straining family members, their kids and friends. But as long as it stays a corporate money machine, the system does not care.

They say prison is for rehabilitation, but there are only bullsh!t programs that are not helping anyone; it is only stagnating people, retarding their growth, not helping them better themselves. Rehabilitation is a myth. I think the courts are meant to work against a certain type of person, namely the underprivileged people of society. The system has a conscious disguise behind their evil intentions. Like any other business, they have a quota to fill and they have to arrest a certain number of people to make ends meet.

I feel that prison was designed to create repeat offenders because I've experienced it firsthand. The system is like a revolving door, creating a pattern of recidivism where one person goes out, another comes in, and the person who left is programmed to fail, relapsing into a life of perpetual crime. I can't say for sure that I won't go back to prison; anything can happen, and I've watched it happen to other people. One thing is for certain, though the elevation of the mind is the only means of survival.




Paris and Guerilla Funk crew are really busy these times, check their website Guerilla Funk

Saturday, January 10, 2004

Yesterday evening was great as a French-Senegalese writer, Fatou Diome presented her book "Le ventre de l'Atlantique" ("Atlantic Ocean's belly" to translate word for word), stories about African people deeds, hopes, woes, problems when they come in France or Europe, stories about false dreams about the life in Europe and the fake rich sending money to motherland, I mean the family who stays in Africa and thinks it all goes well for the people who lives in Europe (and in fact it's not, racism, unemployment and all these things...). And she's a militant, she managed to talk about "sex safaris" and pedophilia in Africa, islam fanatism/ dogmatism, scorn for women in Africa and a lot of other problems, she be praised for that!