Troy

Chris you are essentially talking about marketing. I'm best thought of as a resource of a marketer. I provide a platform where on my place advertising. I also work as a resource to publicists; basically the people who secure media coverage (free promotion). While I'm glad to help, I'm not really the guy to develop the whole plan. While I technically capable of doing it, I have to stay in my lane and focus on the website especially now given my limited resources :-) That said, I would start out by simply talking about and sharing more of your work on this forum and others. We can get started by updating your AALBC.com page. Send me an excerpt of something you think would have broad appeal. I can create a page for it and share it with my readers in the newsletter. Do you have any youtube videos? Send me links to you other websites that I can put under related links. Is there a post on these forums that you like I can link to a couple of those as well. What is the date of your most recently published book? Is it on your page? I would also consider the book review as well: http://aalbc.com/reviews/reviewer_guidlines.htm I can give you a substaintial discount (most of the money goes to the book reviewer). The benefit is that the book will get a lot more exposure. I however would not do the review if the book is more than a few years old. Many authors focus primarily on advertising to generate sales. The smart ones advertise to build a brand. The different can be easily determined by looking at how they advertise. Do you advertise and promote only for a few which when a book comes out or do you advertise and promote continuously over the course of a career?

Chris (everyone) I encourage you to put links on the site (my name is not Mark Z.) AALBC.com is part of the world wide web, not a walled garden, you need links to make the WWW work. I put links to external site on every page I create. I only have an aversion to it you people start to get spammy. Chris we can agree there are positives and negatives with hip-hop. This is true for most things in life. Because of our experiences with the "culture", you Cynique and myself have different perspectives. Cynique has praised some artists you would call hip-hop in the past on this very forum. She rocks a tattoo. She could be lumped into "Hip-hop," but clearly she is a much more complex woman than the confines of hip-hop would allow to be expressed. Indeed it would be silly to try pigeon hole her that way. From my perspective: about 10 years ago I was to talking to a buddy (who happens to be Harry Allen's brother). He was surprised to learn that PE was one of my favorite groups. I explained why and also expressed to him I was not interested in much of the new stuff. He explained to me that I was too old for it. I rarely encounter people in my age range, who proclaim they are part of the hip-hop culture. Hip-hop is a youth oriented culture. Wouldn't you agree? As a youth oriented culture hip-hop simply does not speak to me the way it once did. Sadly very little in the popular culture speaks to be as a grown Black man (what else is new), what I find resonates most with me is music from a period before rap was co-opted, or new music that is influenced by music from an earlier period. As I mentioned I teach young people as well and have been around teachers most of my life. I can appreciate that you can connect with your students, using hip-hop, in a way that your peers can't. I'm sure some of those peers would argue that might not be a great idea. People like Michael Eric Dyson and Cornel West are known for dropping Kanye or Biggie lyrics when speaking to an audience with young people. Shoot, West has even done a rap album. But there are other great communicators who don't quote rap lyrics but still connect with young people. I know you are not saying hip-hop is the only way to communicate with young people, but the implication is that you can't unless you do. Besides, not every young person associates themselves with hip-hop. Chris when you say that hip-hop is at the forefront of bringing Afrobeat to the masses it sounds like hyperbole. Much more of Femi's influence came from Fela, who was influenced by musicians that predated hip-hop. We see the term hip-hop applied so liberally it is no wonder it is not clear to most people what it actually means. Hip-hop is a marketing term really that give whatever it is applied to a hip, youth oriented, street cred. I was supposed to go to an event last night where Questlove was the DJing. He was playing for the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 event. I guess you would say that hip-hop even influenced the staid National Book Foundation too. Maybe we will see some "Hip-Hop Lit" as future nominees for National Book Awards.

It really is a good deal. The mailing list is 15,070 names (clean list no bad addresses), more than 1% paid subscribers with a 15 to 20% open rate (conservative because I can't track all opens). The bidding will only be open for 3 days. I just now sent a notice to my subscribers in the November eNewsletter. Chris I would not rush to grab this, just to get a deal. When you are ready just reach out and we can work something out that works for you.

LOL! Chris this typifies the complete and utter co-option of hip-hop.

This post is dedicated to Chris. The influence of hip-hop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcnWb-vomN8 This is a neat video which actually illustrates Biggie's skills as a lyricist and story teller. Biggie remains on of my favorite rap artists.

Harry, if you watch this video to the end you will see that some of us never forgot Robert. I shot this video in September Champion, who was likely performing that day, was murdered two months later.

Chris my Stevie wonder question was absolutely fair, You described Ras' music as a "modern classic." I consider Stevie to be classic from a previous generation. I also do not understand why Erykah Badu, D'Angelo, Musiq, Anthony Hamilton, and Jill Scott are considered hip-hop artists. The same type of performer from an earlier generation would have been consider Soul or R&B (two more nebulous terms developed for little more than marketing purposes). If all of those artists are hip-hop artists you can just as easily say that any artist is Hip-Hop including Nick Payton. (btw I saw Musiq Soulchild perform this summer; his performance was, in a word, horrendous.) I'm fine with narrowing the scope of the conversation to "whether Hip-Hop has added value to the musical cannon of Black art." I would say yes too, but would put it's contribution behind Jazz, Blues, Gospel, R&B, and Soul. What is the contribution musically when the music is mostly looped samples. The lyrics are no more profound that what poets were reading before the word hip-hop was ever invented. Today I think the corporate controlled version or hip-hop, the one most of us will ever see, has been largely detrimental, profoundly so. Many of our movies were dominated by rap artists. While you would say that has been good. I say that has prevented us from enjoyed better trained actors. I saw a Raisin in the Sun on Broadway. Puff Daddy was in the lead role. Again the audience saw a sub-par show because a better trained actor was not in the role. Honestly, I don't see how you can also completely ignore the misogynistic, obscenity laced, crime glorifying lyrics so common in the most popular hip-hop songs. ​Here is a joint that being listened to by many more folks than "How To Kill God." The relative number of youtube views will reflect clearly what is more popular and therefore much more influential. I submit to you, DeJ Loaf's, "Try Me" a much more representative example of contemporary hip-hop. The hook speaks for itself. I think the guys at Cash Money Content are doing some great things--especially with literacy, so I recognize there are some positive impact, but when you tally the figures I think we are in the hole, and have been for the last 25 years as far as hip-hop is concerned.

The Barkay's Holy Ghost once a big jam back in the day. I've visited Stax the last time I was in Memphis (I visited Graceland too). I have an interest and curiosity in music in general. Music is an important part of my life, as it is with a great many people. So when an accomplished musician (which most hip-hop artists are not) like Payton says "Hip-Hop as a whole is wack," I listen. I could immediately react by saying that he knows nothing about hip-hop, the way many self-proclaimed hip-hop headz would. Instead I read what he wrote and tried to understand his perspective. Because he absolutely knows more about music, and the business of music, than I do and he knows more about contemporary hip-hop as well. You see Chris, I simply don't have a romanticized view of hip-hop the way you do. I live in a community where hip-hop was strong. Very few benefited. Many of the DJ's who spun records are struggling. They are walking around looking broke down. Very few who embraced the art form and the culture have little to show for it other than memories--but you would not know their names, or the people. Certainly the community has not benefited from it. Even the hip-hop museum they had in Harlem could not survive. Still rap music was an outlet for many in a bad situation. Us kids however would have benefited more from better services and educations. While graffiti (or the aerosol arts) is a nice art form; it was, from my perspective, a blight on the city for many years. The young men walking around with their pants below their butts are hip-hop, while when I was hip-hop even our jeans were creased. The biggest beneficiaries of the so called culture are corporations, its biggest consumers are white kids. You question my knowledge of Big KRIT & Ras Kass because you know these folks are largely unknown to people who are not devote hip-hop offianados. Do you have to like Jay-Z in order to like hip-hop, or is that tantamount to disliking Christ and calling yourself a Christian? I know people love Kanye West. I literally try to avoid him and his antics. Does that mean I don't know anything about hip-hop? But again different strokes for different folks. I'll pursue my interest in music outside the genre, but i will check out Cadillactica I've seen most of the artists from Big Daddy Kane, PE, Biz Marke, even Vanilla Ice, perform live back in the day. Less than a year ago I saw TI and Little Wayne perform live. Not one of these live performances were better than the last Prince show I saw, or the last The Ohio Players show, or the last Stevie wonder Show, I could go on. I will say that my favorite live hip-hop show was MC Hammer's during the mid 1980's (many hip-hop devotees on the east coast said Hammer was wack too). Chris would you you rather see perform live Ras Kass or Stevie Wonder? I really like the lyrics on this rap. You actually have to know quite a bit to understand all the references Rass makes. The looped beat used, as with most rap songs is becomes monotonous after a while. While I don't particularly care for the beat it is adequate enough to support the lyrics. After hearing the song once, and enjoying it. What else do I with it? If is not like you can play it during a party and get people to dance to it? While I actually like the lyrics I don't have a need to listen to it again, because I did not learn anything new. In other words, I have no desire to download the song to my personal collection. Perhaps my 20-something self would but not the 50 year old version of Troy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT7X2LfCn5w Is there a song on the above album you would recommend?

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Cynique, Black people have looked different from each other before we left the continent of Africa. Keep in mind all of the genetic diversity we see today started in Africa. I'm not sure infants can see well enough to distinguish facial features. Besides there is a difference between ingrained self hate and being uncomfortable with something unfamiliar. And to be clear, I'm not talking about who people choose to sleep with, or are physically attracted to, I'm talking about who people support with their money and expertise. Cynique, you or even I may not hate ourselves. We may even be willing to judge others by their behavior, ignoring the color of their skin. But I'm saying most of us do not do this. I disagree with your statement, "Black woman certainly aren't color-conscious." (who wrote this and what did you do with Cynique?) We live in one of the most color conscious cultures on Earth. Again, there are some like yourself that are not color conscious, but I suspect that you are in the minority. You do realize that skin lightening creams are on the shelves of stores from Nigeria to East Harlem today. Have you seen the film Dark Girls or the dozen of books on the subject I've shared on this website?

Here is a list of the last 35 Black National Book Award nominees and winners. Invisible Man was the first Black Book to win back in 1953

Chris your argument is reminiscent of an couple of others made here by people who disagreed with me on this subject. There however is one fatal flaw that is always made. The biggest of which is the assumption that I do not "know anything" about hip-hop. You say you grew up in the culture. But I would say that my upbringing in hip-hop trumps yours by a long shot. Sure you may know the new cats better than me, but I don't really follow pop music, so I suspect you know more about new R&B performers too. Also, I never wrote that I dislike hip-hop. Honestly I don't really know what hip-hop means anymore. It is a dubious marketing terms that can apply to blurred lines depending upon who you are. Also it is not clear to me why you say what everyone else writes is opinion based. I'm not the one saying George Clinton, for example, is not being paid the roylties he feels he is due, he was the one saying that: http://articles.latimes.com/2001/may/20/business/fi-241 I'm 52 years old and was raised in Harlem. I been to actual street parties and freaked to Grand Master Flash whose equipment was connected to a street light. I've been to Kool Herc's Disco Fever. I have been to Harlem World, Mister Souls and countless other clubs you never heard of where the culture you love so much was being formed. To this day I see DJ Red Alert, Grandmaster Caz and other cats you've probably never seen live because they don't roll through your your neighborhood. I knew many b-boys that far better break dancers than Krazy Legs or anyone else in the Rock Steady Crew. Because I was a gymnast and knew other gymnasts that performed internationally as break dancers. I witnessed the transition of mixing incorporate scratching, and the rise of the DJ over bands then ultimately the MC over the DJ to the point where the the Bands are relatively meaning less. Which to me was tragic loss culturally. Finally you like others in love with hip-hop cherry pick all the positive things and make believe hip-hop has never done, and is not doing, anything negative. But that is fine. I understand. I'm willing to acknowledge hip-hop has some positive aspects, but I can't ignore the negatives. I guess at the end of the day the hip-hop I know, or at least willing to recognize, is very different than the one I know. I'm not trying to convince you to change your mind because this is a religious argument, pointless. ----------------- In the James Brown documentary, Clyde Stubblefield, the drummer, who created the Funky Drummer beat which rap artists have sampled to death. (Even thinking about the beat brings a smile to my face). Clyde said he "hated" that beat (comes in at the 5:35 mark and lasts less than 10 seconds)--I was floored. I've seen Maceo Parker perform live, I've seen Fred Wesley perform as well. These guys are accomplished musicians. That fact is lost on most people. The music they played for James was like playing chopsticks on a toy piano relative to their ability and skill. Still James treated them poorly. Now I was introduced to the Funky Drummer beat through hip-hip or rather B-boy music. As bad as I thought that beat was, hearing that beat, and so many others in context was much more rewarding. In other words I'd rather listen to the actual song than any rap song that sampled it. Now that is a pretty basic beat, wanting to hearing musicians perform more complex rhythms is really what drew me away from hip-hop music. That and the fowl language and lyrics that no longer resonated. Eminem is good. I can say that his first CD is the last Rap CD that I was excited about purchasing. Sometime I listen to it and wonder why. Although that rap with Dr. Dre still cracks me up: ------------------ Isn't fascinating how to people can agree about one subject so strongly and disagree about something else just as strongly? -----------------

No Cynique, the concept of xenophobia is not new. But cultural influences exert a much bigger influence on our behavior than innate ones. I'm sure you are familiar with the "Doll Test." If you watch even the first couple of minutes of this video you can't help but find it heart breaking. Worse still is that our preference for white over Black persists into adulthood. Black adults just have more sophisticated language to rationalize, justify and mask their self-hatred. It boils down to cultural indoctrination, not an innate characteristic, that results in us being xenophobic against ourselves! But as you can see from the "Doll Test" video everyone is else views Blackness as inferior as well. How many Black people flock to Europe and eschew visiting Africa with disdain and contempt even. On a more basic level; how many more people will buy a book that I sell from Amazon, who is charging a higher price, than the exact same book from a Black owned book seller charging less? I've done blind A/B testing, and even outright appeals of support and Amazon wins EVERY TIME. On an recent experiment Amazon was delaying shipment on a title and still more orders poured through Amazon. I may not be as old as you Cynique, but I'm tired of struggling myself sometimes. You see the battle is not just a against corporatization or racist, it is against our own people. Again, that is the toughest battle to wage. Again the midterm elections make this quite plain.

Harry for all practical purposes all Black people are Democrats. Even through many of us have conservative social views, we vote democratic in such a large majority the few non-democrats, like myself, are inconsequential. Creating another party, for Black people, is unnecessary because, we already have one, the Democratic party, with a Black man holding its highest office. Of course our votes are taken for granted. We don't vote when it really matters and when we do we vote it is for style over substance, popularity over issues. The police office in Ferguson, will not incur a criminal penalty. . What next?

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Cynique, I think our problems, not just Black folks, but across the culture is more greed based. I don't think folks are born racist or afraid of people who are different. I do however believe we are socialized to be that way. I was raised to be prejudiced and a bit racist because I was raised in a segregated environment. The environment was segregated not just by class, but by race. I'm even afraid to say the environment was segregated by intellect as well. Essentially anyone with a brain in their head left the environment as soon as possible. I also don't think Black people are united. I did not come to this conclusion until I left the corporate environment and went into business for myself full time. Sure there are many Black folks who are supportive of each other, but I don't believe there are enough of us. The reasons are plentiful, but they essentially boil down to a distorted view of how protect one's self interest. You see, Black folks typically tend to embrace the majority and all that it holds dear, from their educational institutions, corporations, communities and even their physical appearance. This too is understandable, and it is a force that is too powerful to contend with. It is like trying to hold a family together where half the people in the family desperately want to be in another family. When the family is strong it can embrace the world in such a way that everyone benefits. Today we have a weak family, as a result, we operate from a position of dependency and weakness. If you define unity by wanting the same things. We are indeed unified. Indeed all of humanity is unified, as there are universal desires and needs. But our pursuit of those needs serve a few exceedingly well while the majority of us, of all colors, struggle unnecessarily.

After posting the review above. I discovered, quite abruptly that Bill has been accused of 13 rapes. Once case wa settled out of court. It is hard to determine what is true or false. most of the accusationsa re coming from people expreessing outrage over rumors already circulating. Aparently The Cos, or his naive social media manager, wanted people to create memes and they went crazy with the rape subject.

Chris really I'll have to check that book out. http://aalbc.it/chrisburns Chris when you get a chance check out the video on fake facebook fans. I think you will find it enlightening.

The Cos has a new biography out: Cosby: His Life and Times by Mark Whitaker

Thanks again Milton. I'll have to include information about Saunders' new book in our next eNewsletter. Do you have a preferred book seller?

I forgot to mention I discovered the video, I shared above, in another blogger's article: Why Copyblogger Is Killing Its Facebook Page By the way, I'm not killing my Facebook page. I'm simply not investing a lot of time engaging with the platform. I'm content with what little traffic and business I go generate from the platform.

Talib was in Ferguson and he is a relatively well known rap artist. That is why he was interviewed, not because he was the best person to assess the situation from a political stand point. I know Talib's mom she is an English professor at Medgar Evers college and runs the Center for Black Literature, who host the National Black Writers Conference each year. Talib's brother is a professor at Columbia. Talib is conscious for a reason but that still does not make him the best person to speak on the subject. There are many activists on the ground, from the community, who we should be hearing from more. This, for example, is why CNN's Don Lemon's Interview with Talib degenerated so easily Talib was the the right spokesperson and Don was too busy being defensive. True journalism does not happen in the mainstream media. As a result we are left with an altercation instead of more insight about Ferguson. Cynique did you all really believe the struggle had been won? Did you ever envision that we would be talking about racism in 2015 a half a century after the civil rights movement? From my perspective, things were always bad and they are getting progressively worse as time goes on.

Veritasium produces videos that I look at regularly, because I'm interested in science. This one however was an unexpected surprise as it digressed from their usual subject matter This video fills in the gaps in what I've observed but could not come up with a satisfactory explanation. Over the years my Facebook fans has increased while engagement has gone down. I assumed this was simply a strategy by Facebook to encourage you to buy more ads, but it runs much deeper than that. Last year the Washington Post reported that The US Department of State spent $630,000 (of OUR money) to acquire 2 million page likes and then realized only 2% were engaged. If you run a Facebook fan page you really should invest 9 minutes and watch this video. It will explain a lot. Again the remedy would appear to be to simply get rid of fake fans, but Facebook makes this seemingly simple task so tedious that it is not worth the effort. The same thing appears to be happening on Twitter to, but there is 3rd party software that help you identify and remove fake followers which I do every 6 months or so.

Talib reflects the feelings of many. Not a single individual in my young adult class voted. So complete and profound was the lack of interest I did not bother to even go into it. But I didn't vote myself. Harlem is so liberal my vote would not have mattered one way or the other. In the last midterm I voted for all 3rd party candidates. But those candidates got so few votes that my votes were literally meaningless. Maybe not casting a vote sends a stronger message, as it makes a larger majority of people who could not be bothered. Again despite being a bastion of liberalism, and home to Al Sharpton, Black folks are still not educated well, are still stopped, frisked, and killed by police officers. I have been stopped by the police more times than I can count. Would one more vote for a democratic politician changed anything? ---------- Why a so called journalists seeks the opinion of rap artists on anything other that rapping is a travesty. Again, I know it generates traffic and sales, but it does nothing to further the conversation or advance or collective knowledge. Despite the fact that Talib reflects the attitudes of many, who cares what he thinks about the power of the vote? Indeed, in Ferguson, given the demographics and historical voting rates, voting should have ABSOLUTELY been part of ANY strategy. Any journalist worth a damn would reported on this and explained why this is true. Rather than exposing the opinion of a rap artist who models the complete opposite behavior.

Man Jean Toomer's Cane was the first book our online discussion forum read back in July of 1998. It is one of my favorite books. I'd never read anything like it before. Indeed, I never knew anyone could write a book in that fashion. In 1998 I was 36 years old, with two masters degrees and never heard of Jean toomer or anything like Cane. I was blown away. Again I assert the net, today, gives you what is profitable, not what one wants or what one needs. It is much more profitable for a Black website to talk about Jay_Z and Beyonnce at a Nets game than it is to discuss the masterwork Cane. How in the world could I know, for example, I wanted to read Cane if no one ever speaks about about it? I was introduced to Cane through this website and I in turn introduced countless others. Chris it really is not a chicken or an egg conversation. The net crowds out conversations about Cane, and shove the Jay-Z garbage down our thoughts. It is much easier and profitable to post of video of Jay being attacked in an elevator than it is to carry on a conversation about Cane. There are many people who'd rather discuss Cane than Jay-Z. But they'll never have the opportunity because of many of the reason I discussed. Also John Keene wrote a similarly styled novel called Annotations that is worth checking out if you liked Cane.