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Really starting to appreciate what a great alternative to words music can be.

Image-wise Prince was an anomaly. He was a beautiful, heterosexual dude who flirted with androgeny. I'd imagine he indirectly inspired girly boys to be free to express themselves. But, by all accounts Prince was totally secure in his manhood. The high-heeled boots and blouses he wore did not define him. Nonetheless, Prince was a phenomenal talent. He's definitely among an elite class of documented musicians to have shown up on the planet. 😎

Miles Davis also performed Moviestar, which was written by Prince. I had the chance to see them individually live. Would have loved to have seen them when they played together.

Miles Davis was another musical genius who refused to be shackled by Jazz purists. He was the trailblazer who kicked in the door for everything Jazz became as it was infused with electronics and Funk and became Fusion. Miles' progeny of musicians is lengthy but his lead was followed by Herbie Hancock (Headhunters), Chick Corea (Return to Forever), Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter (Weather Report). Miles Davis' influence rippled through every aspect of black music. The planet is better off that he visited too. 😎

I've heard of "Lovecraft Country" but never watched it. However, Im glad to read that Gil & Brian's music still lives. Hard to believe those cats were late teens/early 20s when they created their best work. The music I play would sound like funky Jazz to the average listener but in DC we call it Go-Go music. As a music listener, it's a little bit of everything because when I'm in composer mode, inspiration can come from any sound(s). 😎

@ProfDYes, Prince was a true wunderkind - the likes of whom will not come this way again. I am familiar with spoken-word poet and social activist, Gil Scott Heron, from way back; another tortured genius who left us too soon. Did you, by any chance, watch the recently aired "Lovecraft Country" on HBO? One of Gil's cuts, "Whitey on the Moon", was featured on the soundtrack of this miniseries. What is your music genre?

************************************************************************************ Mr. Prince was good for the ears and the eyes. ************************************************************************************

************************************************************************************ That outfit is horrible, it's not even matching. He needs a better wardrobe consultant or personal stylist, that's for sure. As to RuPaul, I cannot believe that this one-trick pony is still around after all these years. He used to be interesting, but now he just seems washed up, lapping up any attention that comes his way. And I'm sick of Billy Porter with his garish outfits, prancing around like a peacock when he's really a jive turkey. If he weren't a celebrity he'd probably be in jail somewhere. All three of them could have set such a positive example for Black men but instead they chose to be embarrassing clowns. ************************************************************************************

As a musician, this is near and dear to me. I've always felt that music has the power to heal the world. Prince was a genius. Lately, I've been binge listening to the late brotha Gil Scott-Heron: Despite his personal struggles, amazing how prophetic this poet was with his pen, voice and musicianship. I'm a keyboard player, so brotha Brian Jackson's work with Gil was sublime. 😎

ProfD We're close to the same age then. And judging by your posts....you seem to be a VERY intelligent and insightful brother who has made the same observations that I have of this society and the lack of progress so many of our people have made over the years. You're right that religion has been the opium of the people for thousands of years, used to manipulate and control them. It's especially used against the poor to keep them from rising up against the establishment. Just wait on the "sweet bye-n-bye" to get your crown. However, the people aren't rising up...with OR without religion. Black America is less religious today than they were 100 years ago AND they've made much less progress and are much less stable than 100 years ago when most of them were praying to a White Jesus. Which tells me religion OR the lack of it isn't the main problem, but there's an intellectual problem that does deeper than religious philosophy itself. Up until about the early 1900s with the Moorish Science Temple and Nation of Islam....the vast vast majority of AfroAmericans were Christian and had similar beliefs and moral values. Other religions came in..and the division started. Some for the good...some for the bad. Then the 60s came along and a lot of Black folks left religion all together and many even became atheist. So today Black America doesn't have the religious structure that forms a coheisive society where we all share the same moral values like say...the Latinos. Talk to 10 Black Americans...and you're liable to get 10 different moral codes and opinions of what is right or wrong. I'm not saying we need to go back to "White Jesus". We DEFINITELY can't regress and go backwards. However we need to develop a cohesive moral code in our community that is based on methods that WORK to stabilize our community, and it also has to have a strong spiritual basis to help us make sense of this world and the Spiritual world. But as for me..... I haven't given up on our people, but I'm not gonna continue to wait and wait and wait on them to stand up and make the world better when it's not "in" a lot of them to do so. I have to focus on developing my own Spirituality as well as my personal wealth. In this respect the sell-outs aren't TOTALLY wrong for focusing on their own individual success instead of that of the collective. Why waste your life fighting and sacrificing for people who aren't gonna improve themselves ANYWAY and probably won't even appreciate what you did for them? But let me be clear..... I'm NOT excusing the overall behavior of sell-outs and coons; just making a point about how many probably have come to the conclusions they've come to based on what they've observed. Mzuri Good Morning!!! I can’t call people whitey? Well then, how about Caucasoid? Do you like that better? Good morning lovely! It doesn't bother me one bit...lol...you can use any term you like. I just found it funny because I haven't heard that term since I was a kid. And also I don't expect such a radical term like that coming from a Black person who is either Conservative or Republican (not that you are...I remember you saying just Conservative). But I shouldn't be surprised. I've met quite a few racially conscious Black people who....for some reason....felt more confortable identifying themselves as Conservatives more than Liberal or Progressive. Then we get to hear attorney Crump, with his silly little speech impediment or whatever he has going on. Tariq Nasheed calls him "mush mouth Crump"..lol Yeah he's not the most articulate public speaker. And he's also not the best looking brother in the world too. So this doesn't make him the most charming person. But he's smart as a whip....and has been getting Black families PAID over the past 5 years or so. I tell people you can say what you want about Ben Crump, but he's made more Black millionaires than Donald Trump and Joe Biden COMBINED....lol. Having attended under-performing schools is not a valid excuse though, since there is such a thing as self-education, where you learn by reading books. I know what you mean. My Mother didn't rely on the public educational system to teach us. She taught me how to read and count at around 3 years old, before I even ENTERED school. INfact, most of what I know wasn't learned IN school...but on my own through my own research. The only thing I really learned in school was how to socialize with people from different backgrounds and how to get along with authority figures. I never heard about the Hoodoo people, only the ones in the islands. How do you know all of this??? My Parents from down South and they talked about it. Most of the older Black folks in my neighborhood were from down South. When you grew up in the rural and segregated South, Black folks HAD to be self-sufficient and independent and come up with their own medicines, cures, and ways for handling things. They couldn't rely on White folks to do it for them. Hoodoo is pretty much a loose collection of root work, medicines, poisons, and spiritual practices some learned from the Africans tradition passed along in slavery, and others learned from the various Native American tribes our people live around. Black folks used to deliver their own babies and cure their own disease WITHOUT the help of White doctors. And they did things which would be considered "miracles" by Western medical standards. Look at George Washington Carver and how he used to "talk" to the plants to find out their medicinal properties.

First, most of the black tragedies as reported on local and national news happen in impoverished communities. IMO, the media wants to speak to the most under-educated black folk they can find. I believe if the family was articulate, their story would go unreported. Murders happen in trailer parks all over America too. I wonder if the media goes there to have a little talk with honey boo boo's momma. Even then, they'll try to clean her up a bit before lights, camera, action. Mzuri, Ben Crump with that speech impediment and Rep James Clyburn (South Carolina) either clearing his throat or grunting are media darlings. I cringe every time those nigglets show up on TV. 😎

My problem with reparation checks is how quickly black folks will give the money back to white folks. Brotha Dave Chappelle did a brilliant skit on it. We already see it happening on a smaller scale with athletes and entertainers who buy a bunch of dumb sh8t and make other bad investments. Ask the average black person what they would do with their reparation check and they can list a litany of sh8t they would buy i.e. consume. But, usually there is no business plan whatsoever. Wealth is built and secured through vertical integration. Currency (labor and money) should remain within a group/community at an exchange rate of at least 8 times before it leaves. Reparations will never happen and especially not if there was a chance the concept above was adopted. Now, I'm beginning to think those stimulus checks were a reparations dry run. Let's see what people do with the money. Sure enough, more TVs and sh8t were sold. That's why 3% of the population control the wealth in this country. They insure that their money changes hands within the group. 😎

Pioneer, I'll be 52 years old next month if the last birthday didn't cancel my reservation on the rock. I've been bald (purposefully) over half my time here but still have my 32 teeth and perfect health. Knock on wood.😁 See, that's it. While many folks are worried about their "soul" and the afterlife, that doesn’t seem to be the concern of white supremacy. They are content to rule and enjoy here and now and having been doing so for thousands of years and counting. We cannot afford to "wait" on a spirit, soul or anybody else to change our conditions here. That clearly hasn't worked. Religion is an opiate that anesthetizes folks into dealing with the prison into which they have been born. That's why in some religions suicide is a sin. You don't have the *right* to call it quits and exercise your get out of jail fee card. As it relates to navigating the prison yard of white supremacy and living a balanced life, folks who *know* better need to *do* better. That starts with self-actualization i.e. personal salvation and producing a system of justice and correctness. 😎

*********************************************************************************** @Pioneer1 Not so graphic please, I am dainty. Seriously, please have consideration for my sensibilities. Thank You. ***********************************************************************************

Mzuri I find it ironic that one has to go to foreign news sources in order to find out what is really going on in the U.S.A. I recognized this as a kid growing up in Detroit where we could get Canadian television stations on the antenna back in the day, lol. While nudity is STILL not allowed on U.S. broadcast television to this very day; they were showing nudity on Canadian television as far back as the 70s. And if you lived close enough to the Canadian border in places like Detroit you'd also get news on the CBC (Canada's government channel) that you couldn't get on American stations. They generally showed news UNCENSORED and you got more of the truth than you got from U.S. news. Ofcourse that was in the days when most of the televisions had the 2 nobs and the rabbit ears you could twirl around to pick up signals. All the kids would be scattered across the floor watching the t.V. and the older people would be sitting on the couches making them get up and change the channels, lol. Cable and digital put an end to most of that. When I went to Europe I noticed the same thing. More nudity on their television stations, less violence, and more uncensored news.

Mzuri I have a feeling that once the Reparations checks and land starts getting passed out, Italian Americans will all of a sudden take a lot more interest and pride in their Moorish ancestry....lol.

************************************************************************************ We are going to find out who all identifies as Black whenever the government starts doling out some slavery reparations. ************************************************************************************

************************************************************************************ Is there anything that you DON’T know about? I have wondered why a Black man would want to become a woman, and what you say makes sense, but I don’t see how their lives are made easier by trying to live as a woman. This would mean that they aren’t really transexual at all, they are just looking for a way out of a miserable existence and entering into another miserable existence by disguising themselves as something they are not, when people don’t fall for their new identity anyway. Besides that, being a Black woman isn’t easy either. Why do men think that life is any easier us, that’s a big misconception. If there are any Black women who have had some charmed life, please let me know. About being a Black Conservative, as I have previously expressed, all the various political labels need to be defined. What if it has a particular meaning to one person/group and a different meaning to others? ************************************************************************************

If people could remember and/or take anything away from a NDE/BDE or some other close encounter of the 3rd kind, I would hope they'd be able to make the world a better place. That's my issue with dead people in general. Surely, I've had family members and friends who've had some kinda love for me. To date, none of the departed especially my grandparents have communicated anything to help me navigate my existence on the rock (planet). One way or another, I haven't been told to stop sinning and get my sh8t together because heaven and h8ll are real. They haven't provided me with the winning lotto numbers either. IMO, NDE/BDE or just dead aren't the souls we need to be tracking. There are living folks who have the keys to making humanity better. For whatever reason, it's not their time yet. 😎

ProfD And don't forget the recent stunt L.A. Laker's Russel Westbrook pulled a few weeks a go walking down the street in a skirt: Russel Westbrook of the L.A. Lakers.