Troy

Sisters from the Harlem Writers' Guild Click for more photos From the Brooklyn Book Festival's Website: The Brooklyn Book Festival is the largest free literary event in New York City, presenting an array of national and international literary stars and emerging authors. One of America’s premier book festivals, this hip, smart diverse gathering attracts thousands of book lovers of all ages to enjoy authors and the festival’s lively literary marketplace. A record 280+ authors participated in over 150 panels and readings, which began on September 17 [2012].

Shaking Nah'Sun by the shouldersw vigorously, I say, "Nah'Sun, I did not say 'Age gives one a heighten sense of perspective', or that old people could not be fools" All I'm saying is that age cohorts have similarities, based upon shared experiences. I'm not making a value judgement, or saying one is better than the other. People of the same age group have similarities to each other and differences to those of different age groups. Seen? Of course I'm judging rap as a whole. You can find brilliance anywhere, if you look hard enough. I just don't have inclination to dig deep for rap music any more (for the reasons I've previously described). If I spent an hour scouring the net and came up with Mr. Lux I would be disappointed. A single query turned up so many artistes who've sampled James brown in the last 5 years it is ridiculous. As far as people born in the 90's who appreciate music from the past -- I know that is right, 'cause I raised two of them myself. They don't like it all --- yet. Neither did I at their age. I do not recall hearing a contemporary rap song that sampled a beat I was unfamiliar with. While I don't exactly have my ear on the pulse of Rap music I don't live in a vacuum either, and am probably more versed in contemporary rap than most my age. I also have two daughters 19 and 20 who have exposed me to contemporary rap as well as some stuff not commonly played on the radio. I don't care very much of any of it outside of rocking a party. The Roots humm. I take Ursula Rucker and you can keep the rest of them. Does ?uest Love drumming skills account for his popularity? I've seen him play a number of times and he while he exudes cool he does not strike me as unusually skilled.

"Spirit" as in haint or duppy?

I do judge people (individuals) by their actions. But that is different that what I'm doing in this conversation. It is certainly valid to make generalizations about a group of people based upon different shared characteristics, including age. Nah'Sun you may be different that the typical person your age -- any age for that matter. You are more contemplative and articulate than most. However you just have not demonstrated to me, based upon our conversation about Rap music, that age is not a factor in our differences in opinion. The fact that you even know who Loaded Lux is makes my point. I can guarantee you if I asked my peers who Loaded Lux is I would get blank stares. Again, that does not mean Loaded Lux is not the shit. It just means after a certain point things like who the hottest rap artists are fails to matter very much. Now 50+ year olds like a Chuck D, or KRS 1 might know who Loaded Lux is, but your garden variety 50 year old will not. Part of the reason for this is that we've heard it all before, many, many times -- including the beats the youngsters are not using. How many times can I listen to a James Brown or Funkadelic sample? No, a gangster rapper can be no more socially conscious than the aforementioned drug dealer who hands out turkeys at Thanksgiving. Trying to construe Easy-E and NWA as socially conscious is the epitome of double speak. Sure NWA reflected the harsh reality of a segment of a community, but socially "conscious" -- Please! I would put Superfly right behind the Issac Hayes' Theme from Shaft as my favorite movie soundtrack. I agree with your statement, "What’s sad is that listeners and readers can’t see how the arts and crafts nowadays are severely dumbed down" What I am learning from you is that there is, what you perceive, as social conscious and relevant rap music being produced today. What you are failing to learn from me as that as one gets older the appeal of Rap music wanes, in much the same way, the appeal of nursery rhymes do. You may argue that the reason for this is that the "quality" of the popular rap music has declined. I argue that the very nature of rap music is the reason: repetitive beats we've heard before, rap lyrics spewing the same braggadocio and misogyny. Again I've heard spoken word artists rap better over a Conga beat than anything a Jay Z has ever done -- think The Last Poets. Or better yet check a snippet of some brothers I recorded in Newark earlier in the year. The cat, Kasim Allah, at the 0:45 second mark was tight. I did not capture his best stuff -- but they were all good. The live musicians make added to the whole experience.

Cynique, that is it in a nut shell. Social media platforms allow you to exert complete control; someone says something you don't like -- block 'em. Even the information is filtered. You only see the stuff which is not likely to go counter to your world view. Even your own persona is carefully scripted and crafted -- to either evoke the most envy or sympathy. I can't tell you how many times I've sat at a "table of 10", at some function, and half the people were engrossed in the smart phones. 25 years!? Look at the world now.

Nah'Sun, if you think I'm "...making seem as if NWA were responsible for the demise of rap music." you are attributing an idea to me that I do not hold. A couple of times already you have drawn a conclusion that could not have possibility been drawn from what I wrote. I believe Rap music was destroyed by those attempting to make more and more and more money from it while contributing less and less to art. When money became more important than the art, the art was destroyed. I liked NWA, a great deal, they were one of my favorite rap groups but I was in my early 20's when they hit. If NWA came out today, in my 50's I seriously doubt -- no I know -- the appeal would not be the same. In fact, the last new rapper I found interesting was EMINEM. I have not heard anything a rapper was done in the last 15 years that has interested me at all. Occasionally some rapper will pull a beat from back in the day that I like, but all that does is draw me to the original song. Check out the joint Nobody's Perfect by J.Cole a very popular beat. Now check the original Think by Curtis Mayfield; Now Nah'Sun, here is when age comes in. I don't have data to support this but I can virtually guarantee you the preference of one over the other will be skewed by age. With older folks preferring Curtis. But I'll take in farther. There is NOTHING that the best rap artists has done EVER that surpasses the best musicians like a Curtis Mayfield. Now I would not have said this 25 years ago, but I've matured some since then. BTW, Loaded Lux did not interest me very much. I'm sure he is talented, in the way it is measured today, and would have a broad appeal to other kids his age.

Hickson, the advice is about that caps that I and others have provided was only intended to help. I won't mention it again. What do you mean by "MY AVI IS STILL NOT WORKING"?

Writegirl, twitter is for children (younger people). I can't think of a single reason, other than self promotion, why an adult would be on it. But that is my opinion. Many people use twitter like a sophisticated text messaging system and communicate with each other using tweets. For some Twitter is a more effective means of communication than email. Again this is benefit to youngsters. Of course in our celebrity driven culture many people are starstruck and follow celebrities. They derive a great deal of pleasure reading something a celebrity has written. To a lessor extent businesses can engage with customers, deal with complaints, promote specials, etc. Of course Twitter is not the most efficient way of doing this but it is used for this purpose, because so many people are on twitter. If it were not for AALBC.com I would not be on Twitter Twitter will need to figure out a way to make money are they will go away. I can't think of a revenue model that will work for them over the long term. People making the most money off Twitter are the consultants who tell people how to use it I agree tweeting can be a big waste of time -- unless you are a celebrity, self promoting The following graph is indicative of the relative impact I've realized using various method of reaching people for AALBC.com. Twitter is typically the least effective in terms of actions (in this case taking a survey). Twitter is fleeting -- you need to tweet the same message often to get the same impact as facebook. Many automate the generation of repetitive tweets. The vast majority who read your tweet are not going to follow a link. I just emailed my enewsletter so the full impact will not be realized for days the emails have a long self life,

Stop-n-frisk is a real problem -- probably worse that even the media makes it seem. Of course Stop-n-frisk is usually in reaction to high crime rates. The tactics used by the police under these circumstances always inconvenience law abiding citizens. Obviously the people in the most crime ridden communities can not control the criminals in their communities so they want and need the police to do something. They also want to tell the police how to allocate resources, how to deal with suspects and perpetrators, and which laws to enforce and how to enforce them. You can't have it both ways. I don't have an answer. It is like fixing the country's education system, or eliminating corporate ownership of politicians. The problems are so profound they can't be fixed with the current personnel involved because they are a fundamental part of the problem. Crime will increase in cities like NY City where stop-n-frisk is a problem.

AALBC.com's September eNewsletter is out! My latest eNewsletter http://bit.ly/books0912 is full of book and film reviews, profiles of writers, literary events, videos and articles created for anyone who reads literature written by, or about, people of African Descent (but you already know that). Help keep the conversation about books alive in the real world and online -- Please share the eNewsletter with a friend! I'm open to suggestions too -- any ideas to make the eNewsletter better post them here or on my Blog -- I appreciate it!

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"Rap music isn’t responsible for damn near single handedly destroy a generation" Well Nah'Sun I did not mean to imply all that. My analogy was an attempt to explain why doing a few good things can not eradicate the impact of so much harm. Like the emptiness of the act of an abusive husband who gives his battered wife a bouquet of flowers after a one of many beat downs. Perhaps it is one of the reasons you revere them today. But I'm not blaming the actual rappers, they were just easily obtained tools used to make money for record execs who could care less how the money was made, how we were portrayed and how we assumed the roles glorified in the lyrics. And while you wax poetic about the social consciousness of NWA Fuck da' Police. Lets not forget the types of lyrics that actually put them on the map. But I understand I got caught up in the shit too... Shoot a motherfucker in a minute I find a good piece o' pussy, I go up in it So if you're at a show in the front row I'm a call you a bitch or dirty-ass ho You'll probably get mad like a bitch is supposed to But that shows me, slut, you're composed to A crazy muthafucker from tha street Attitude legit 'cause I'm tearin' up shit -MC Ren Lookin' for the one they call Eazy But here's a flash, they never seize me Ruthless! Never seen like a shadow in the dark Except when I unload, see I'll get over the hesitation And hear the scream of the one who got the last penetration Give a little gust of wind and I'm jettin' But leave a memory no one'll be forgettin' So what about the bitch who got shot? Fuck her! You think I give a damn about a bitch? I ain't a sucker! -Eazy-E

Nah'Sun, I think Cynique likes you Yep, we will disagree on the age thing. The West Coast Allstars?! Easy E, Ice T, Dre, the most egregious gangster rappers of their day -- that is a terrible example of socially conscious music. That is like saying how benevolent a drug lord is who dispenses turkeys at Christmas in the neighborhood he has helped destroyed. I'm sure you are right about talented MC's being around. I just don't hear them and I definitely don't have time to wade through all the garbage to find them. They are apparently not being played on the radio -- but for the most part I've stepped listening to the Kisses and Power 99's fronting as urban radio.

Writegirl, you saw this on Twitter -- I told you Hickson is working it. Good luck with the film Hickson. I thought it would have been obvious Cynqiue was being her iconoclast self. Her comments reminded me of something Christopher Hitchens would say. Cynique, now you know you can't "joke" with people about their God. Writegirl maybe Nah'Sun was joking too? I hope Hickson takes your advise. Personally if the message is more than a paragraph in all caps I find my self skimming the rest. I still believe Hickson would be better served if he typed conventionally. Hickson here is something else to consider: I sometimes share information authors post here, I might copy and paste it in a eNewsletter for example. If the message is all CAPs I can't use it because I would then have to retype it.

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Nah'Sun I always used the word "different" when talking about perceptions relative to age. I never made a value judgement or said one was wiser, or better than the other -- just different. But the difference in perceptions I speak of is just a fact of life. There are perceptions that are common to those of the same generation based upon changed experiences -- especially when it comes to recent history when one lived it and the other did not.. Judging by your comments I'm assuming I'm older than you which I think explains some of our differences. You sound like me 20 years ago. See now, if it turns you are my age, or older, I'll really look like I don't know what the heck I'm talking about. :-) Back to the DJ's. Who is Jay Z's DJ, or Kanye's, Biggies or Tupac's? Why use a DJ when you can just play a recording and never have to worry about anyone messing up. In a minute, we are gonna ditch the MC too. I did not realize was we were all being gypped when the DJ replaced the musician. Now the DJ is gone. Today virtually ALL the music begin rapped to today was sampled from actual music recorded in the past. Virtually always, the entire original song that has been sampled is FAR better the digitized, repeatedly looped, smidgeon that is rapped over with wack lyrics. I have not purchased a rap album since the "golden years". No, Gansta Rap had not taken the country by storm in the late '80's but it had the same impact on me, when I heard it, as when I first heard a DJ mix Lets Dance, or Apache for the first time. "but him was real bop on the cover of the rap weekly baldheaded with a snarl of spit hanging from his lower lip financial secure synthetically angry his job was to keep blk boys pointed toward prison" --wadud This was written at least 15 years ago. Why do rap lyrics have to be so bad, when I can point to 20 relatively unknown spoken words artists who could slap something together in 5 minutes that is better than the popular rap lyrics now? That is one thing I will never understand. You are right Nah'Sun the Golden Age of hip-hop has past...

Age does matter when it comes to one's perception. Actually living an event or period also makes a difference in ones perception compared to someone who just read or heard about it from others. Of course you are right; Just 'cause one lived in an era does not mean they have a clue about what was going on -- and that could apply to me too. You probably have more factual knowledge than I about my own era when it comes to rap (I'm still assuming I have at least a decade on you ). But I think I have enough experience and knowledge of Rap and Urban lit to draw some meaningful parallels. I appreciate your thoughts though as you've given me a different way to see things and have filled in some gaps. That said... Straight Outta Compton by NWA is firmly in the genre of Gansta Rap. They were not playing this type of music on the east coast -- and Definitely not New York City. I also discovered Too $hort the same year. That may be why you don't feel it was strong until the 90's but it was strong in the late 80's -- certainly out west. Money has everything to do with the quality of the album -- it determines which albums get made and promoted. If you can get some teenager to rhyme over a synthetically generated beat. Why pay for trained musicians to write original melodies, song writers to craft lyrics and signers to sing? It is cheaper to make, faster to create and Black people cant buy it fast enough. Money drives everything. Now I know you were talking about the "quality of the music" has nothing to do with the money generated of course look at jazz, classical, opera, blues... Now PE was my group. Their shows were relatively weak, you could not really dance to their music, but they are one of my favorite rap groups of all time. Can they get an album made today? It Takes a Nation of Millions came out in 1988, Paid in Full came out in 1987, Straight Outta Compton in 1988 so I may be with you on the Golden age in terms of Albums releases. When I think of golden age I think of a time when the lyricist was secondary to the DJ. The DJ would discover beats, mixing them together and get the crowd motivated and dancing -- if he was sufficiently skilled. B-boy music was not on he radio, you could not buy it in stores. Mix tapes were passed around and you were lucky to get one to duplicate. I still have a tapes with Flash, Starski and others. I know this is more nostalgia than anything else. Speaking of Ole school I was at a party a few weeks back and Grandmaster Kas walked in rocking a thick rope chain and kagol brim. My boy used to spin for him back in the day.

Writegirl the hope for a child who grows up in an environment I described using quotes (actual quotes, so often used they are almost cliches), are slim. Even those who make it out are scarred. It seems it is more difficult to escape today than it has been since the Jim Crow era. Nah'Sun I suspect I have you by a few years and I think my perceptions differ because of our age differences. I grew up in NY City during the birth of hip-hop. When you say the Golden Age of Hip started in 1987 I think of it as the beginning of the end as Gansta Rap was going strong and hip-hop was completely co-opted by then. Being a conscious rapper basically meant you were not making any money. Sure the analogy between book and hip-hop is not perfect but there are certainly some interesting parallels. As far as a Kick Ass cosign being required, yeah you are right. But you usually do get the co-sign untl you've made a name for yourself. If you look at all the urban authors signed by all the Big Six publishers, or Cash Money Content, all of them made a name for themselves first. Speaking of age, Cynique did Rap music ever resonate with you, in such a way that you related to, purchased it, and really enjoyed listening to it? I was dogging Gasta Rap earlier, but I remember when I first heard NWA in 1986 I was like damn this is the shit!

Cynique I think you would be the antithesis of a lurker and if you were a spambot (we have MANY of those), You would have been banned from jump street. Writergirl friend me on Goodreads (I'm basically aalbc on any social media site) I don't really use Goodreads very much maybe, I'll start. Have yo noticed if authors and other have begun to use Goodreads to promote themselves and their businesses?

Cynique, when I come here I go to http://aalbc.com/tc then I click the "View New Content" button. When I click on the links returned (if any), I'm taken to the top of the conversation. Give that try. I just approved an account for an old school poster. Hopefully they will surprise us with a contribution.

I thought about modifying for our boards Bu I'm falling behind with site updates...

by Jennifer Dancy on Apr 12, 2012 http://www.flowtown.com/blog/the-many-faces-of-the-internet-user

I think more importantly -- even despite the ALL CAPS -- Hickson knows how do self-promote his use of these boards illustrates that. And yes if you been here more than 5 minutes you've heard of HICKSON .

writegirl, the discussion board software is much better, from my perspective, that the old boards. There is more functionality. It is even optimized for a cell phone access. It has more functionality that Facebook in terms of sharing (Authors could actually take a page out of Hickson's playbook and learn something). I occasional have conversations on Facebook, but this software is so much better for that purpose. Here you can post pretty much anything you want with a copy and paste video, photos, links in your posts. On Facebook all you can post is text. Finding a conversation is very tedious and as a result fleeting, so you have little incentive to write a lot because it will effectively disappear in a few days. You are also at the whim of whoever wall you are on. Here I make every attempt to preserve everything. To this day I will reference posts or conversation from 5, 10 years ago. Will your content on Facebook have that kind of longevity? Facebook's main advantage is that users can control who will interacts with you. If you are an author you will get people singing your praises. Here you are just as likely to get people singing your praises as you are to get people trashing/critiquing your work. The same can happen to anyone who shares their ideas or opinions here. In my mind this is a disadvantage. This is why you have people posting the minutiae from their daily lives on Facebook -- because there is no one there to tell them it is uninteresting.