"...no one else will tell you so remember that you are Black gold."

Esperanza Spalding - Black Gold (feat. Algebra Blessett) from Concrete Loop on Vimeo.

Don Cherry Trio

Don Cherry Trio video i found via the blog Africa is a Country.

....thoughts? comments?

Red Hot Chili Peppers - New Music - More Music Videos

i didn't know they had a video for this song out. just watched it....

ummm...comments?

this video is equipped with Anthony Kiedis rocking a platinum grill and getting his hair braided, booty dancers, homeless men, neck-twisting angry black girlfriends, and an old woman trying to give Anthony what looks like watermelon....and an exclusive black and latin@ cast.....???

it's like they've stepped straight into our culture. Red Hot Chili Peppers Black Card APPROVED!

.....??? comments please.

"i woke up early this morning/but i still ain't seen the sun"

i'm not a rapper/you ain't no gangsta

summertime

i'm sooo ready for summer.

these last few weeks were nice, all hot....but the last 2 or 3 days have been just ugly. its raining outside right now...ugh...

but if you turn up the heater, get some iced tea, listen to some summer songs and think happy thoughts....studies have shown that it can bring summer faster. what studies? by whom?....thats not important. check out these videos that remind me of summer. i'm working on getting me a spot in Bed-Stuy so i can sit on the steps and blast these from an old school radio. a radio Raheem radio.......yup.

i was born free

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

oh my god. i love this song!

Tevin Campbell was like the Trey Songz of the 90's. not that i think Trey Songz is actually hot (he's a notch below mediocre....), but his popularity with the sistas is up there...you know what i mean.

where is he at these days anyway?

imposing dichotomies

a week or so ago i posted a Video of Erykah Badu's single from her new album, Window Seat. theres a good number of people talking about the video, and how she stripped "bucket naked" and what not.
i was telling one of my coworkers how good the album was, when another coworker of mine commented on the video and basically said that Erykah is just trying to sell records by stripping and is no different from Beyonce right now. here's a blog that discussed it, and you'll see in the comments that others feel the same as my coworker.

now, i love Erykah. i pray to her right after i pray to Oprah. she, Oprah and Staceyann Chin are basically my trinity. oprah=god, Erykah=Jesus, Staceyann=holy spirit....although i sometimes interchange Staceyann with bell hooks and Kara Walker....and Frida Kahlo, and Salvador Dali, and elephants, and birds, and ....

ha. i definitely digress.
i think that people just need to be open to an artists freedom of expression. if she feels the need to strip (which, is a word that shouldn't really be used for this video because its saturated in negative connotations of strip clubs and prostitution, and so on...) in public, then lets look at the entire message of the video as opposed to those last 20 or so seconds that we actually see her naked. in addition, i think it says something about us when we cannot look at someone naked without thinking that it is something sexual. sometimes being naked is just being naked. its not always about trying to make it to the top of mens' "celebrity fuck list" (not that men have this....hmm...that i know of....but you understand what i mean...).

also, it seems like black women (or just women of color in general) are constantly having to fight the need for others as well as ourselves to put us into boxes; into dichotomies. if she's not an India Arie, she's a Beyonce (...."if she isn't the Erykah i've known and put into box A, then she has to be the Erykah i put into box B...."). India Arie/Beyonce....slut/virgin...jezabel/mammy-they're all the same and they're as old as America.
but she isn't (we aren't. no one is) this either/or. she is whoever she is, which is probably constantly changing in the same way it is for any of us that are constantly seeking EVOLUTION. this is the commentary at the end:

“They play it safe... Are quick to assassinate what they do not understand. They move in packs ingesting more and more fear with every act of hate on one another. They feel most comfortable in groups, less guilt to swallow. They are US! This is what we have become, afraid to respect the individual. A single person within a circumstance can move one to change, to love our self, to EVOLVE.”

exactly. we are afraid, or rather too simple-minded to truly respect the individual.

maybe she is just trying to sell records. or maybe she's just evolving.
comment. respect. think. criticize.

also, just for clairty-i don't really pray to Oprah. i don't pray to anything or anyone. i stopped doing that a while ago.

you're in harm's way/ i'm right behind...

i trip on alligators and little rattlesnakers...

THEEsatisfaction

i like these chicks.

Stalley @ Chelsea from Creative Control on Vimeo.

if anybody speak to scotty/ tell him beam me up...

theres a room where the light won't find you...

city girl

if your art is done/ johnny get your gun ~ Sleater Kinney

"i'm tired of whys/choking on whys/ just need a little because...because" ~Fiona Apple

do you ever find something in your ipod that you know and love, but haven't listened to in a while, and when you listen to it, it takes you back to when you played it nonstop? its like a time capsule that holds all your feelings around that time in it? Jamiroquai does that does that for me. around junior high and high school-this is what i was listening to. another artist that i love that does the same thing for me is Fiona Apple.
theres a lot of assumptions people have about her. which is probably one of the reasons i picked up her stuff around the 8th grade, but she's a genius on top of genius on top of awesomeness. she is so much more than her image could ever encompass.
just like Zero 7, her music has what seems like entire orchestras in the background; theres so many layers to her music...like a Jackson Pollack painting.
....theres no way i can make you feel the same way i do when i hear her music. but at least i tried. heres some:




again, i would suggest watching these with your eyes closed first, then watch the video. they can be a distraction sometimes. i love the last video, though. it has Zach Galifianakis in it-one of my favorite comedians.

Arrested Development

i just discovered this channel on my cable (which i had not explored prior to now because i only have about 25 channels anyway, half being in Spanish, other half being shopping networks, with 2 or 3 gems thrown in) that only plays songs from the '90's. i been jammin to Brownstone, Bell Biv Devoe, Total, SWV, Tony Toni Tone, Brandy, and Arrested Development.
i love Arrested Development. you know their parties were the shit. their style, their vibe, their music, and especially the message in their lyrics. i had to make a post about them. i couldn't post 'Everday People' because embedding wasn't disabled, but i like that song the most.