SUPER BOWL SUNDAY IS HERE!!!

Black folks everywhere are thrilled that for the first time we’ve got not one, but TWO African American head coaches leading their teams to the big dance. Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith make us all proud.

But as any Black high school or Black college football fan will tell you, the games may be great, but the real show is at halftime. This year we’ve got a Black band taking the field during intermission.

Prince is performing at the big dance!

No disrespect to U2, Paul McCartney, Detroiter Kid Rock or Janet Jackson’s nipple medallion, but it’s about time we had some soul at the Super Bowl!

This past weekend, I admired Forrest Whitaker’s brilliant portrayl of Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. The Oscar talk is well-deserved (though Ghost Dog is still my favorite Whitaker vehicle), but Amin’s brutality was disturbing. And he isn’t the only African tyrant who is guilty of such abuses.

“Africa has had far too many dictators like that,” my wife remarked as we walked out of the theater.

James McAvoy also did a fine job as Nicholas Garrigan, Amin’s personal physician and “closest advisor”. In the film, Amin turned to Garrigan for advice on dealings with his ministers, his family and with the media.

Ultimately, Ugandans relied on him to tell the story of the despot’s attrocities. A Ugandan doctor tells Garrigan in the movie, “They’ll believe you. You’re a white man.”

And that line reveals the truth, doesn’t it? The character of Garrigan is fictional, created for the book by Giles Foden and adapted for the movie. Was the white man added to the story to make it more “believable”, or is he there to make an African tale more “marketable” to a white audience? (more…)

Okay, this is about ridiculous.

After Mel Gibson’s anti-Jewish tirade, he went to rehab for alcohol problems. Michael Richards couldn’t explain his niggardly attack on a couple of hecklers, and though he insists he doesn’t have a drug or alcohol problem, he checked himself into rehab.

Now Isaiah Washington uses the word “faggot” to describe his Grey’s Anatomy castmate, T.R. Knight, and after first denying he said it, Washington later admitted his transgression.

“I can neither defend nor explain my behavior,” he wrote in the public apology he issued. “I can also no longer deny to myself that there are issues I obviously need to examine within my own soul, and I’ve asked for help.”

So Isaiah Washington checked himself into rehab for psychological treatment. (more…)

James Brown’s celebrated legal woes will follow him to the grave.

That is, if he is ever buried.

Over two weeks after his death on Christmas day, the Godfather of Soul has not been laid to rest.

From the AP:

The body of soul singer James Brown has yet to be buried as attorneys and his children work to settle issues surrounding his estate, including where he will be laid to rest.

For now, his body lies in a sealed casket in his home on Beech Island, said Charles Reid, manager of the C.A. Reid Funeral Home in Augusta, Ga., which handled the services.

Once again the cry should ring throughout the land, FREE JAMES BROWN!!!

Associated Press

VH-1’s new show “Egotrip’s White Rapper” is a lot of fun. And it is even more fun to know that Ego Trip is behind it.

If you DON’T know, Ego Trip is a multimedia production company. In the 90’s they produced a hip hop magazine by the same name…and if you haven’t heard of the group of writers, thinkers and cultural consigliares, you better ask somebody. They have produced some of the best pop culture products in the last twenty years including “Ego Trip’s Big Book of Racism” and other hip hop bibles.

That is what makes “White Rapper” so funny. Too often we see Black characters powered by white producers, directors, writers…Ego Trip switches the game up a bit. That is why in the first episode we saw the white rappers introduce themselves to their Bronx neighbors with a box of crackers and a rhyme. Silently hoping their new neighbors–who actually live in the hood–don’t laugh at them.

Ego Trip is Sacha Jenkins, Jeff Mao, Gabriel Alvarez, Brent Rollins and Elliot Wilson…pay attention.

White Rapper Show

New York magazine has a profile on Pam Grier in this week’s issue. And if you think it is hard out here for a pimp…it is really hard out here for a Black actress.

“Back in 1975, Grier was a newly minted curiosity, the jaw-dropping, jaw-breaking star of blaxploitation flicks such as Coffy and Foxy Brown—subversive, explosive movies that weren’t so much about introducing the mainstream to black urban culture as they were about declaring that black urban culture couldn’t care less what the mainstream thought.”

The article also has a link to her 1975 interview with the same magazine.

New York Magazine

With the passing this week of Michigan son Gerald Ford there was some concern that the transition of James Brown might be overshadowed by coverage of the former president. The media lovefest and selective amnesia that we all endured after the demise of Ronald Reagan has returned for Ford, but in death as in life, Soul Brother Number One will not be denied. No disrespect to Mr. Ford, but he was president for two years. James Brown will be The Godfather forever.

Yes, Brown endorsed Richard Nixon for re-election in 1972, so apparently he and Ford shared an admiration for Tricky Dick. Somehow we forgive our Godfather of this transgression as we forgive him of his mistreatment of women and his struggles with chemical demons and the US criminal justice system.

In many ways James Brown is the very embodiment of the 20th Century African-American man. Through the trials and tribulations he made us proud to be Black. His music, his dance, his style, his politics, his business sense changed the world forever.

James Brown is as much a founder of hip hop as DJ Kool Herc or any other member of the pantheon. Without James Brown there is no hip hop, no soul music, no funk, no house music, no drum and bass. There is no Michael Jackson, no Prince, no Sly Stone or George Clinton. No Red Hot Chili Peppers and no Jay-Z. Hell, without James Brown there is no Al Sharpton.

So Get on up! Give it up for The Godfather of Soul, the Founder of Funk, The Originator of Hip Hop, The Hardest Working Man in Show Business, Mr. Dynamite, The Man with the Crown, Soul Brother No. 1, The Original Brother Rapp, the Amazing Mr. Please Please Please Himself, JAAAAAAAMES BROWWWWWWWWNNNNN!

Say it Loud! We LOVE JAMES BROWN!!!!

Michael Richards used ‘N-word’ during comedy act — APOLOGIZED

Sean Bell murdered in NYC on his wedding day, Mayor Bloomberg — APOLOGIZED

Prime Minister Tony Blair says Britian played a role in slave trade, then — APOLOGIZED (sort of)

O.J. Simpson tries to market fake book on murders, it gets canned then he — APOLOGIZED

All have fallen on my deaf ears. Apologies are overrated and usually are only reactionary, when someone calls it to your attention.

Apologies never change things or make them better. What changes is the person affected.

What is your favorite ‘06 apology?

Yahoo! News/AP apology story

Spring Break is so over for the Bush twins! Oh wait, it isn’t spring!?!

President Bush’s daughters, Jenna and Barbara, have been celebrating their 25th birthday in Argentina. Yet, the U.S. Embassy has suggested the partying sisters should return home amid reports of the twins runnning naked down the hall of their hotel. Barbara also got her purse ’stolen’….

(Was this the same ’stolen’ that happened when Jenna got drunk in New York a couple of years ago?)

The U.S. Embassy in Argentina has said they should return to the U.S.

But the Bush twins are like, ‘OMG…I am soo not coming home early, Dad.’

The frenzy of the Playstation 3 console is egregious. Some one was shot in line at Walmart in Connecticut. In Kentucky people were pelted with BB guns. A man in California ran into a pole when he was racing to get into a Super Walmart.

Saturated with high definiton images and fake real world adventures, America - no, the world - is loosing it.

Those standing in line are the same ones who need addiction counseling.

Getting shot for the sake of our sanity –Yahoo! News

It’s great to see love and not guns in the hip hop world….
And we see love displayed by New Orleans rappers Baby ‘Birdman” and Lil’ Wayne.

This picture is being circulated around the Internet.

Fans and some fellow artists are now questioning the relationship between the two Cash Money Millionaires. (more…)

Dionne Warwick has alot of friends — Reba McEntire, Da Brat and Angie Stone.

The Psychic Friends Network star is working with these artists and many more on her new album “My Friends and Me.”

Warwick ruined her career being “Friends” perhaps she should’ve chosen another name.

For a good laugh –Psychic Friends Network
My Friends and Me album –All Hip Hop

Paul Mooney, comedic legend and former joke writer for Richard Pryor, says he was fired from his role as host for “Showtime at the Apollo.” Mooney believes his jokes about Pres. George Bush, Jr. didn’t go over well with Time Warner.

Time Warner exec Dick Parsons (who also happens to be a Black man) heads the Apollo Theatre’s board of directors. Parsons is also a notorious Republican.

Mooney made jokes about the president’s drunk daughters’ gin and juice (Jenna and Barbara Bush.) He also called Bush the devil and said the letters of his name amount to 666.

Mooney who was interviewed on Howard Stern’s Sirius satellite radio also said we are losing our rights in this country and as usual…Black folks rights are the first to go.

“My point is ever since 9/11, we lost all our rights. They’re practicing on the minorities, but when they get good at it they’re going to do it to the white folks,” said Mooney.

Radar

Police stopped Snoop at a loading zone at the Bob Hope Airport in southern Cali for a “vehicle code violation.”

Surprise. Surprise. When the officers searched the vehicle they found WEED and a gun.

Just when the “man” had given him a chance and he was doing commericals with Lee Iacocca.

If ever there is to be a book that just doesn’t make any since — it is this one. O.J. Simpson is (being paid millions) to write a fictiony non-fiction run-down of his life with Nicole Brown Simpson, and how he murdered her. Is this for real?