SOMEONE TELL KANYE TO SHUT IT. SORRY THIS CLIP WAS TAMPERED WITH AND REPLACED WITH SOME RAY J & KIM KARDASHIAN GROSSNESS. APOLOGIES TO ANYONE WHO SAW THE CLIP, NOT SURE WHAT HAPPENED THERE. OH WELL!! Who else is tired of this brat? For someone who admitted to being a homophobe, he sure acts like the Queen of all Queens by throwing these public tantrums. Aside from the outbursts though, his swagger is ridiculous! I mean, he makes a good beat and all, but comparing his plight to the plight of Jesus? Remember that magazine cover? I bet Jesus' beats are better than his. Here is a clip of an inebriated (not that that matters) Kanye proclaiming to be the "#1 human being in music".

JUSTICE? It's a lot to ask when your Black in America isn't it? However, we're still far from it when cases like the Jena 6 and Martin Lee Anderson are floating out there. Martin who? That's the name of the kid who was killed in a Panama City, FL boot camp in January '06, but boot camp staff reported that he died of natural causes. Martin was in bootcamp for stealing his Grandma's car and joyriding in it. He was sentenced to probation but violated it, so he was sent to boot camp, which is used to "scare straight" kids that show signs of going down the wrong path. All this to say, Anderson wasn't a violent kid. Nonetheless, after the first 2 hours of his first day at boot camp, Anderson was forced to continue exercising after he collapsed during the exercise routine. Drill instructors applied numerous uses of force including pinning him by the arms, slamming him to the ground, applying pressure point applications, and forcing him to inhale ammonia tablets. After this 20 minute struggle, Anderson died. Of course the Anderson family demanded an investigation, so the useless Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced that his autopsy ruled out "trauma or injury". Instead they claimed Anderson died on natural causes related to sickle cell. Knowing that this was pure BS (because an otherwise healthy kid can't die of simply having the sickle cell trait) his parents ordered another autopsy from a reknowned forensic pathologist with the backing of the NAACP. They found: 1) Martin Anderson had sickle cell trait. 2) The repeated blows to Martin Anderson’s limbs and the gripping of his limbs left several bruises but did not contribute to his death. In other words, he was not beaten to death. 3) Martin Anderson’s death was caused by suffocation due to actions of the guards at the boot camp. The suffocation was caused by manual occlusion of the mouth, in concert with forced inhalation of ammonia fumes that caused spasm of the vocal cords resulting in internal blockage of the upper airway. Vernard I. Adams, M.D. Chief Medical Examiner^[9] Basically, the camp employees killed him. 7 camp officials assaulted this boy while the nurse stood by watching. It's all on tape. The second autopsy was conducted in February. Martin, who was 15, died in January yet no arrests were made until November. All of them are out on bail. The case is going to trial, but will by all accounts, feature a majority white jury - as is the racial demographic of that region. On top of that, the family has faced an uphill battle to draw attention to this case, and get adequate representation as the governor (at the time) Jeb Bush has remained indifferent. If a white teenage girl was beaten by 7 boot camp employees and died right after it, she would be a household name. I'm so tired of this. Why is it that these stories don't make headlines. Is this not worth discussing, or non-relatable because he's Black?

NOW, 1 MISSING WOMAN - As we all know, missing persons of color don't get equal media coverage. Here are the facts: Stepha has been missing since Memorial Day weekend. She was last seen leaving Pepper's Cafe night club in Ft. Lauderdale, FL on 5/29. She's a 22 yr old college graduate with honors from New York who was visiting her aunt in Miami. She is 5'2, 110 lbs and has reddish bronze hair. If you have any information at all, please call 1.800.crimetv. UPDATE: Sad news. Nailah's body was found on October 3rd behind abandoned buildings a few miles from her car. There have been no arrests and no current suspects. Let's all keep Nailah's family and friends in our prayers. For more on this story, click here.

Native New Yorker and known prick, Bill O'Reilly recently met with Al Sharpton at Sylvia's restaurant in Harlem. This was O'Reilly's first time in Harlem. O’Reilly reported that he “had a great time, and all the people up there are tremendously respectful,” adding: “I couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia’s restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks, primarily black patronship.”

Later, during a discussion with National Public Radio senior correspondent and Fox News contributor Juan Williams about the effect of rap on culture, O’Reilly asserted: “There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M-Fer, I want more iced tea.’ You know, I mean, everybody was — it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn’t any kind of craziness at all.”

I just don't know what to say about this... Um, nice that O'Reilly took some time out of his busy schedule to observe a culture which he pretends to know so much about already. Maybe Sharpton took him over to the local Duane Reid so he could see that Black people are capable of standing in line too. Single file even!

Yes it's been a minute since I posted here (actually about a year and a half). Now that I actually have the time to devote to it, I do plan to post regularly. Honest! Since the last post, which I believe was March '06, I've gotten engaged, pregnant, married and unemployed. In that order. My daugther Laila was born this past July ('07) and I'm head over heels for her, and I wanted nothing to keep me from her so I left my gig at Discovery Channel to be a full time mom and a freelance writer/producer. Some of my posts will be short because I steal away to post while she's asleep and she doesn't sleep long by herself. She's like, a level 9 clinger so often times I'm typing with one hand. Advance apologies for the typos! There are so many things to discuss, like: the presidential candidates, wack ass Congress and the unbelievably inept White House, dog fighting in America, and even Britney Spears (yes, hit my baby one more time!) I don't get to the movies much anymore - they don't really smile on bringing infants into movie theaters, nor do they make for the best movie going experience. Believe me, I tried. So you guys are going to have to tell me about the new releases. I'll give you my thoughts on what's hot at Hollywood video. Ok, that' enough for now. Over & out!

CONCERT REVIEW: This is a pic of a Damian Marley concert in September 2006 when he opened for Ben Harper at the Merriweather Pavillion in Maryland. I'm not sure why he's the opening act for Ben Harper and the boring ass Innocent Criminals (although Ben Harper is fyne, how did Laura Dern snag him? One of life's mysteries!). Anyway, tons left after Damian's show. Let me just say, he's absolutely terrific in concert. His show is very spirited yet organized. I love the Rasta who waves the giant Rastafarian flag while running across stage for the entire set. What exactly is this man's title? Staff cheerleader? I always think he's going to hit Damian in the back of the head with that enormous flag pole, but he's acutely aware of where everyone is at all times. Those impressive depth perception skills! He's not that young either, but spry nonetheless. So back to the show - I love Damian; he's an intelligent writer and a strong emcee. You can also tell he's a perfectionist by the way he completely owns the stage. Every last detail of his show is polished; the background singers are flawlessly choreographed, and they sing with such intense passion, you wouldn't believe they do it 6 nights a week. I saw him perform during Howard's homecoming and I was so close I could see that with one glance, or a quick finger gesture, his musicians and support staff knew exactly what to do. You get the feeling the singers are like "Oh Jah, if I don't hit this mark, or if my vocals don't gloriously soar over this melody, Damian is going to take me out back and beat me with reeds... again!" I guess this all this comes with being a professional, but I've seem some lousy shows in my day, and I can honestly say the Marleys give 110% every time, trust! I read somewhere that Damian & company smoke a substantial amount of weed before and after every show. You might smoke too much when 8 lbs has no apparent effect. Towards the end of the show, his brothers Stephen and Julian come out to help sing some Bob Marley classics. I love DM's album, but to me, this was the apex of the show. I know they tend to roll together, but I was still totally surprised. The accompanying clip is taking forever to upload, so hopefully it won't error, so y'all can get a taste. Lata!