In December, Un-Mute.com highlighted the work of Brooklyn writer and literary evangelist, RIPMC. A few years ago he formed a cultural and literary collective that is entertaining and inspiring New Yorkers called Writer’s Block.
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This is an example of the pinned up Red White & Blue frustration burning poems in the stomachs of our youth!
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Toni Morrison is the author of such books as “The Bluest Eye”, “Paradise”, “Sula”, “Jazz”, “Song of Solomon”, “Love” and “Beloved”. She is a Pulitzer prize winner, Nobel prize winner for literature, and Former chair of the humanities at Princeton University.
In this 1-hour 1998 interview with Charlie Rose, Morrison talks about why she began to write, her book “Paradise”, how race is the least informing part about a character, her approach to literature, her response to criticism, and more.
James Baldwin (1924-1987), a great American writer, authored such books as “The Fire Next Time”, “Nobody Knows My Name”, “Go Tell It On The Mountain”, and “Giovanni’s Room”. His writings highlighted the life of African Americans in this country.
In this interview, Baldwin explains why he is compelled to write, his use of description, and how he goes about gathering pieces of life to write about.
I often wonder how it must have felt to give birth to Hip Hop - to watch it crawl to the mic and take its first steps on stage. To raise it from inner city basement parties to 5th avenue soirées. Damn. Who would’ve ever thought Hip Hop would be living thanks to its fair skinned consumers and dying thanks to its dark skinned producers? It saddens me to watch Hip Hop continue to be puff puff passed on to its latest set of 21st century guardians who with or without knowing feed it only the best in recycled abuse.
Will the real parents of Hip Hop please stand up?
Sure, many will say that Hip Hop lives within today’s current roster of so-so MCs, but it’s only so long that Hip Hop can continue to breathe within another dying body. The idea of Hip Hop as a culture is quickly being eclipsed by its growing presence as a brand, cultivated and exploited by the greed of its franchise developers (Crunk Juice anyone?). Where’s a doctor when you need one? Yeah we’ve got some, but the lyrical and musical PHDs poised to revitalize Hip Hop are placed underneath a stack of unqualified applicants skilled in producing the freshest in baked facades.
And we love it.
Our longstanding relationship with Hip Hop has been traded in for a glamorous affair with rap’s wam bam thank you mams ready and willing to give us the quickie of our lives.
Can we remain faithful to Hip Hop?
Or will we continue to get fucked by look-a-likes, moaning until it feels like something real. And all the while, Hip Hop waits. Because the money needs to be paid, and the profit needs to be gained. And not too far down the block, a 7yr old proudly hollas “superman that hoe”, but we still tell Hip Hop to hang tight. That we need to get this out of our system…just a couple more years of acting a fool and it’ll be just like the beginning – the good ‘ol days.
Time is tickin’ and Hip Hop keeps sittin’, waiting for your return.
But…will you return?
Famous: adjective, known about by many people
Many: adjective/pronoun, a large number of
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Bassey threw something on her Facebook and it helped me flesh this thought out.
Peter Gibbons: The thing is, Bob, it’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I just don’t care.
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