Uptown Notes

Detroit is a microcosm of Black America. I believe if you cannot love Detroit, you cannot fully love Black people. The Detroit Metropolitan area represents the best and the worst that Black folks in this country have to offer. Detroit is under intense scrutiny as of late and the flashing lights of attention may have served to take the life of seven year old Aiyana Jones as a TV crew filmed a home-raid by the Detroit SWAT. With all the fascination with Detroit around the nation we get the problems of the city beamed into our homes via satellite, but it makes me wonder, is there more there than what we normally see?

I love Hip-Hop. I love battles. I hate the same tired themes and references in them. I love this translation. […]

This morning I woke to #RIPBIGPUN as a trending topic on twitter and was conflicted about bigging up Pun. Pun […]

I love hip-hop, love some reggaetón too, I love the youth, but I’m pretty sure I don’t love this! How […]

It’s been a minute since I dropped a Friday Funny on ya’ll, probably because I’ve been traveling the Diaspora for […]

On Sunday night, Kanye West once again burst into the limelight with his interruption of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at […]

Hip-Hop has been political, you just haven’t been paying it attention. My reflection on the Black August Hip-Hop Project.

You know how you say “what is there to do today/tonight?” Well I have an answer for you from today […]

I can enjoy songs about summer… check the video by Dead Prez for Summertime and make sure to cop “Pulse […]

I thoroughly enjoyed New Muslim Cool for its careful treatment of Hamza who beautifully embodies two of the most powerful social forces of the past 30 years: Hip-Hop and Islam. As a child of Hip-Hop and an admirer of Islam, I was pleased to see that the “new muslim cool” may just be the maturation of the old muslim cool.