Jump to content

CDBurns

Members
  • Posts

    972
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    138

Everything posted by CDBurns

  1. Yes it does sound like a diagnosis, lol. It definitely is a case for me of the chicken or the egg. What comes first, the music or the movement?
  2. The same could be asked about NWA Delano. At least with PE the music was critical and socially aware, not just on two or three tracks either. I like to say that with Black folks as the music goes, so do the people because we are so tied into the drum and music as a people. Our first language in America wasn't English it was music. Songs have always either been at the forefront of movements in the US or a part of the movement. Every major change in this society can be signified by music. The only time there hasn't been change in this society is in the last 20 years and guess what? The music has been stagnant and without real power. One could literally argue that the lack of powerful and meaningful Black music in the mainstream has contributed to the lack of advancement in the black community. PE has done their part as purveyors of positive and meaningful art. A movie about them would be welcomed and give a lot of insight into their connection to the Nation and condemnation of the media and Hollywood for over 30 years now.
  3. If you feel so inclined I have a banner on the side of my website that you can click and register for your site. www.cbpublish.com. Createspace is solid. I actually moved from Lightning Source to Createspace to avoid the annual fees since my books weren't selling. I do hate that I used my own ISBNs which actually limits the reach of Createspace since Amazon is very proprietary. Soldier on sis.
  4. Hey Troy, I hope everyone is savvy enough to build their own ads and then upload them to their server. If anyone is not very savvy and they don't have an FTP and they are using Wordpress they can simply upload their banner pictures to their wordpress and then copy and paste the url that is assigned to where it is inside of their server. I hope that is clear... If not then I can reword it and explain it again since I'm not looking at Wordpress I'm just going from memory. I'm working on banners right now. Edit: I just realized that uploading the artwork here alleviates the need for uploading to their server. Disregard the above stuff.
  5. Did it! Now this is how simple it is: 1. go to Tools on the menu on the left of Wordpress and then go to Available Tools 2. You will see your Press This link... better yet I will post it directly from that section. The link is below, but this took about 5 minutes. With this feature there isn't any writer's block. If I can't think of anything, I can choose an article from one of the blogs on Huria and Press This! http://www.cbpublish.com/business-how-bloggers-can-help-each-other/ Press ThisPress This is a little tool that lets you grab bits of the web and create new posts with ease. Use Press This to clip text, images and videos from any web page. Then edit and add more straight from Press This before you save or publish it in a post on your site. Install Press ThisBookmarkletDrag the bookmarklet below to your bookmarks bar. Then, when you’re on a page you want to share, simply “press” it. Press This Copy “Press This” bookmarklet code Direct link (best for mobile)Follow the link to open Press This. Then add it to your device’s bookmarks or home screen. Open Press This
  6. I think this has more to do with the numbers and type of blogs being run. The majority of bloggers are women. Women tend to have their own groups and networks that they deal with. If there is any movement that shifts them away from that area they are comfortable in, they don't shift, they stay in their areas. While I'm writing, I realize that this is almost everyone, not just women. We all find our comfort zones and stay there. I have made it a point to visit at least 5 sites a day. It's kind of my mantra. I also made it a part of my routine to check AALBC 5 times a day. There is a level of responsibility that a person has to have outside of their comfort zone and I just don't think people have it. I also don't think people respond to e-mails very well although it is still one of the most successful methods of reaching people. I think this will be very similar to my discussion about my final "Facebook" sucks post. http://www.cbpublish.com/business-further-proof-of-facebooks-faults/ Ultimately, the only thing that will help a blog or a small biz is a continuous famous cosign or an extremely dedicated and focused network.
  7. This is another solid idea that I think would catch fire pretty quickly. The idea of an app that aggregates blogs is nice, but it would take some tech savvy to pull off.
  8. For those using Wordpress there is a very simple method of doing this. In the Tools section it is called Press This. I can take any website and click on my Press This and it creates a blogpost for the content on that page. I simply have to add a quick blurb, categorize and then share it. It's a great feature that allows anyone to share content from any site.
  9. I like this idea as long as the ads are created in each shape: skyscraper, horizontal banner and square (large). I would incorporate it into my site immediately.
  10. I think another simple gesture is to look into adding people who share a similar voice to your blog. If you know 5 bloggers, create accounts and allow them to share their work via your site. Think of it like Medium. Bloggers share their content through Medium and through their site. Why use Medium though when you can link up with another blog and share your article in two locations still reaching a bigger group of people.
  11. Blame Spike Lee. If anyone should be on a PE movie it should be Spike. PE provided the soundtrack of Spike's most famous films. As a matter of fact when you say Do The Right Thing it's almost synonymous with Public Enemy. The DJ Lord replacement happened for this new release. The replacement is really noticeable. The music quality is very bad to me although the lyricism is still on point. In regard to being loved abroad this is the case for all Black music.
  12. I kind of got that. You should still sign up for BMI or ASCAP for your song publishing if you haven't. Also I get that you are using Amazon as your URL, but you should definitely have your own website for people to find your work. Createspace is a great tool and it does allow you to create an author's page so you are moving in the right direction. We all face the same issue however and that's finding readers. I hope you you keep pushing and find your market.
  13. Hi Jon, I'm sure Troy is going to ask you what your website is? As a fellow music lover, I hope your songs are actually submitted to ASCAP or BMI for publishing. Good luck on your work.
  14. Dang Troy got me like... ditto Troy, ditto.
  15. My primary problem is the lack of investment into kids. Not financial, social and emotional investment. Parents and the neighborhood used to be invested in the kids. You honestly couldn't walk two houses without having to speak to an elder. When I say family it's not just the nuclear family that I'm discussing it is the extended family as well. Parents no longer hold kids accountable. Parents use the same language and mannerisms as their kids. Parents just aren't truly present in their kids lives. Although my mom worked two jobs, she was present and I knew I was loved and I actually heard it, although I wasn't reinforced to follow my passions because she didn't know what they were. The parents I see and hear today will tell their kids to F--K off and that they are done raising them at 18 before they ask their kids what they love. Kids today can't show respect or care and consideration because their parents don't teach it. What I want is an investment into the kids out of the parents. I want the parents to know what their kids are capable of. This will require, once again, someone staying in the home, mom or dad, and learning what the interests are and nurturing it. When someone is available and present kids are less likely to end up in bad situations. This will also require people to find away to be together for their kids which is a completely different subject.
  16. I think the first and easiest thing is linksharing. Add at least 1 blog to your sidebar on your blog. I'm down to flesh out ideas of course.
  17. Definitely an intellectual and someone I attempt to emulate in my ranting... but I always fall short. Happy Birthday (and I never say HBD to anyone).
  18. Troy and I had similar childhoods/young adult hoods. I was a part of the first group of kids that were bussed to all white schools in Memphis. I went to jail/juvi in the same week, lol. Not as a rite of passage, but because of my inability to deal with my own smarts. (confusing I know) Even with all of the things I've gone through, having a gun put to my head and a misfire, being stolen from, to stealing, selling things I had no business selling, I made it out okay. Troy, I will use what Cynique just wrote and say that what she has expressed is why I don't believe in the argument that things are worse. The time she lived through can't be compared to any part of what we are encountering. We have lanes available that were not available. As she said kids respected school and took advantage of the little they had. Today kids don't. I don't buy that it's the system or crappy schools. All a good teacher needs is a willing student and a book. My 20 years of education taught me that. In regard to leaving the big city and coming down south... MAN THERE ARE JOBS EVERYWHERE, people in the south make a very conscious decision to not pursue employment or to not take jobs they consider demeaning. I can only speak for the tri-state area of Memphis, North Mississippi, and West Memphis Arkansas. North Mississippi has one of the fastest growing areas in the country with a lot of jobs. Memphis is the distribution hub. It's the only place I've witnessed a 60 year old woman get 5 jobs in the last 3 months simply trying to figure out where she wants to work in retirement. The jobs she took were young people's jobs primarily and the only reason she didn't keep the job she liked was due to the hours. (This is my mother in law I'm talking about). I'm not saying living in San Diego or New York on 30K is something that can be done, but I lived in San Diego with a wife and a son on 30K. We lived in an apartment, we didn't save much money, and we lived in a gang neighborhood, but we lived okay on one income. Was this because I had the best childhood? No. We simply learned that we couldn't get all of the things we wanted. We sacrificed. Others around us struggled more because they wanted the new car, the trips and the nice things that represented living well. We are obviously looking at things from two different points of view. I don't care about racism and politics. I don't think it stops me as much as I stop myself. I also look at people in poverty as unwilling to adapt and change because I've been so involved in those communities. I can give all the breakdowns in the world, but the best example I can give is my next door neighbor. They are an Asian family who immigrated here. 3 families lived in the same house. They all worked crappy jobs (nails, auto repair, cell phone sales). They all paid the same amount on the mortgage. These three families paid their mortgage off in 3 years from low paying jobs. Two of the families moved out and another family immigrated in. They moved down the street into a foreclosed home. Those three families paid the mortgage on this foreclosed home and paid it off in three years. They moved to a third house and did the same thing with the last immigrated family. In the ten years we've been in Memphis these folks have become owners of three properties. They took a loan against the first house and started their own business. There wasn't a white man, or the system or any of that which prevented them from doing what they did. They cosigned for each other and helped each other and they lived below their means. Black folks can't even live in the same house bro. When I was a kid we had 6 people living in a 2 bedroom apartment in the projects. That would never happen today. We no longer live near each other. The nuclear family and extended family is dead. This takes me right back to where I was when I say, fix the family and many of our problems go away.
  19. I get what you're saying, but don't agree. There is no way in the hell that I would drive through Mississippi 40 years ago. Now I do a ton of business in Mississippi. In regard to two college educated people, the only reason two people can't live well is because they have made decisions to both have jobs so that they can have more things. No one is willing to sacrifice their educations for the betterment of their families. My wife has a terminal degree and so do I. She has been a stay at home and god knows we've struggled very hard while I was in education, but we made it on one salary. A professor's base salary of 30,000 a year so all that you are saying to me falls on dead ears because I've lived it. I've just recently become comfortable and it's because of my sneaker business. We aren't willing to sacrifice, or move or relocate. We want to stick to our guns and tough it out, or work two jobs to have more things. When the reality is if we sacrifice the hedonistic things we have we could save more and do more. I didn't live through Jim Crow, Sharecropping, Civil rights, but I have to imagine that things were far worse for us then, than they are now. Hell with a smart phone and time, you can learn and read almost any book in the world. How we use what we have now is the issue, but to me we definitely have a lot more than we have ever had at our disposal. I mean take for instance the poorest school in every district has books and computers. What more do you need?
  20. I don't get to go to movies unless they are family films so I'll be streaming just like you. As far as all of that drama with those dudes I remember it well and this was almost common knowledge. The only gangsta in the crew was Eazy E. These dudes were not crippin or bloodin/banging. DJ Quik was and was the first to bring that element to Hip-Hop. NWA was the first to be prominent out of Cali, but there was a huge undercurrent and funny enough the person to do it best was Ice T before NWA. By the time Ice Cube, and then Dre left that group, it was all about the money. Honestly they had some really tacky songs, but some really important ones as well. I do agree there is revisionist history happening probably, but NWA didn't even have gang affiliations. Hollywood actually did more to spread Gangsta rap and the gang issues than NWA ever did. Colors brought Crips and Bloods to the entire country. People outside of Cali didn't even know about the gangs until that film. As a matter of fact gangs were regional. NY had their gangs, The Midwest had their gangs which filtered to the south and the West Coast had their gangs. After Colors branches of gangs began to show up in every part of the country. NWA brought a lot of things to the mainstream and they sold a lot of records, but they did very little in contributing to Gangsta rap. As a matter of fact the whole idea of "gangsta" rap is a label that eventually led to groups like Compton's Most Wanted being signed and the Banging On Wax series of crips vs bloods. Hollywood glamorized it. You ever notice there aren't any Hollywood films or songs that are big about Gangsta Disciples or Vice Lords? The only prominent VL is Common and he's crossed over so much people don't even know he banged. There is a lot to discuss here.
  21. The simple solution is one I've used at schools and in business discussions. Try for the first time in the history of Blacks to maintain a strong family unit. There has never at any time in our history been a strong family unit. Societal and political factors play a part of course, but if you want schools to get better, all it takes is parental involvement. I know this because I've taught at the poorest school in Mississippi 50 kids in each class and I saw those kids perform and many of them are now in college and doing very well. I've taught in one of the most economically challenged and diverse schools in California and I saw those kids all pretty much refugees overcome through family. They of course weren't Black, they were African, Latino and Asian but their families were powerful, broke, struggling, but committed. As poor as they were, those kids actually had families. Stop worrying about the world and get back to building. We absolutely can not control anything outside of our family. So my answer to ending racism... f--k racism and keep it moving and rebuild families. If it's bringing granny back into the home, or having two moms, people have to start loving these kids man. A loved kid can accomplish incredible things. That is as simple as it gets. I have to ask you why is that Cynique's generation kicked so much ass and ours isn't? I know damn well things were much, much worse and the resources were twice as limited so tell me Troy why aren't we doing better with so much more available to us?
  22. Considering Dickey often writes to empower the woman in his novels and he caters to a female readership, I'm sure he is diminishing the sexual prowess of the man being discussed and strengthening the status of the woman, or he's just finding a really big words way of saying what the bible says, that the man will leave his mother and cling unto his wife in regard to the auto word. That's my educated guess without reading the book. I should probably just be quiet though since I haven't read it, lol.
  23. I'm not reading it, but share the words. Maybe someone can help.
×
×
  • Create New...