Do Black kids really think it’s “acting white” to excel in academic/intellectual pursuits? Dr. Edward Rhymes says no. In his article, Acting White? African-American Students and Education, Dr. Rhymes seeks to discredit disingenuous and misled pundits and celebrities who claim that there is some anti-intellectual movement afoot. Citing his personal experience with youngsters, both in [...]

In order to properly evaluate albums, the first thing I have to do is create a rubric. (What a fun word). I’m thinking that the criteria for hip-hop albums will be slightly different than the one for gospel albums, but not entirely dissimilar. After all, I’ll be comparing albums within genre by the same artist, [...]

Okay, but before I get to all that, I just saw the Tyson knockout. That joint was pitiful. Mike actually hit the ropes, bounced back up, and got caught with another fist. It was like something out of Rocky. Michael King has a discusson about it. It’s just sad to me. As if the world’s [...]

This is the 200th post. It’s Saturday. Generally, weekends are for cleaning up, but I’m an old comic booker, so multiples of 50 are special issues. Conflict of interests. Scattershot thoughts or double issue? To solve this, I think I’m gonna finally deal with some posts that have been lingering around for too long. By [...]

Does anybody remember the Space Giants? Goldar, Silvar, Zan, and Methuslem vs. the evil of Radak? That used to be my sure shot on weekday afternoons when I was in early grade school. I don’t remember what channel it used to come on…maybe Chicago’s channel 64 or something. One of those high numbers at the [...]

This is from an interview with Melle Mel. Kool Moe Dee rated him the greatest MC of all time in the book, There’s A God On The Mic. At first I kind of disagreed, but then taking everything into consideration…I really can’t argue with it. From my first post, I’ve been mentioning really breaking that [...]

At first this was going to be another in the occasional series on my dismay at the public adoration of Tupac. My contention is that Ice Cube was the MC that Tupac wanted to be. There are some strong parallels to their careers, and there would probably be a lot more had Tupac not died [...]

The Grind Date, the new De La Soul album, is coming out on September, 28. Check y’all at the store.

What’s the point of any governmental regulation of sex? Seriously. Moral regulation, i.e. pontification from a religious institution is one thing. State regulation is something altogether different. Nobody stepped to me on prostitution…whatever. Except for the element of taxation, I don’t see how the government has a stake in it one way or the other.  [...]

In my first journalism class, the professor kicked that old cliche, “Man Bites Dog…That’s news.” But this…this is just sick. A suburban Chicago man is in court today facing charges he raped a female dog, facing up to nine years in prison and $75,000 in fines if convicted. Joyner faces one to three years in [...]