Official Tracklisting:
1. The intro
2. Are you ready?
3. Nina Ross
4. Free
5. And I Love It
6. Pusshhhhhh
7. It’s For Real
8. Marry Me
9. Love the Way
10. Murs Inatra
The New Jersey native known as DJ K.O. (Keenan Ormsby) has teamed up with Shaman Work Recordings to release one of the best hip-hop compilations to come out in years.
Picture This... matches a seemingly endless roster of hip-hop's hottest MC's with an equally impressive group of producers. The result is a tribute to hip-hop's past, present, and future.
Veterans like Diamond D, OC, Masta Ace, and Ed OG bring back the past, while lyricists like Talib Kweli, Elzhi (Slum Village), Phonte (Little Brother) and Royce da 5'9" represent today's hottest performers, and newbies like Skyzoo, Kaze, Supastition, Silent Knight and Tiffany Paige set the bar for what's to come. Featuring tracks produced by Black Milk, Buckwild Analogic, 9th Wonder and M-Phazes (to name a few) the album definitely has something for everyone.
The man behind this masterpiece is DJ K.O., who kept one thing on his mind when creating the line up: "I approached this as a hip-hop a fan, he says. "I thought about my own ideal collaborations and took it from there."
K.O. used his connections from the college radio show he hosted at Rutgers, along with spinning and promoting parties in NYC to get the ball rolling. In 2004, he formed Elementality Productions. It wasn't long until K.O. shared his vision with John Robinson, (member of What's The Science? and President of Shaman Work Recordings). Three years later, the finished product exceeds even K.O.'s expectations.
"Most of the songs are good, old-fashioned hip-hop," he explains. "There's a raw, angry gutter sound mixed with more smooth, soulful tracks."
With Picture This... hitting stores in September, KO's eyes are already set on the future. "I'm a lot more focused on the behind-the-scenes stuff than dee-jaying", he says. "The aspects of A&R, management, and executive producing are most appealing to me."
He also hopes to continue to provide a platform for new performers to be heard on a large scale.
"Nowadays, it's so hard to break an artist", he says. "I knew there were so many dope artists who just needed a chance to be heard."
Official Tracklisting:
01. Here We Go (feat. East, Silent Knight & Fresh Daily)
02. Best To Do It (feat. Royce Da 5′9, Elzhi & Supastition)
03. Get Em (feat. Skyzoo, Silent Knight & Emilio Rojas)
04. Someday (feat. Torae, Talib Kweli, Lil Sci aka John Robinson & Tiffany Paige)
05. Ladder Of Success (feat. Phonte, Wordsworth, Masta Ace & K-Hill)
06. It’s Time (feat. Soulstice, Eternia, Kenn Starr & Tiffany Paige)
07. Nobody Like Me (feat. Edo G, Kaze, Diamond D & Mr. Mohalyn)
08. Mind Of A Genius (feat. Chaundon, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Finale & Sean Boog)
09. 3 In The Chamber (feat. O.C., Kaze & Torae)
10. This Land (feat. Silent Knight, J. Sinastah &
Archrival)
11. That Knack (feat. Wordsworth, Strick & Torae)
12. Start It All Over (feat. Skyzoo, Median & Emilio Rojas)
K-Salaam is an Iranian-American DJ and the first non-reggae act to be signed to the reggae major label VP. The film is an in-depth look into the concept album, featuring interviews and songs from artists including: Trey Songz, Buju Banton, Dead Prez, Papoose, Sizzla, Capleton, Bobbito Garcia, Anthony B, Saigon, Suheir Hammad, Luciano.
source:wiretapmag.org
 Madlib is set to drop the new album entitled “WLIB AM: King Of The Wigflip” on September 30th on Rapster / BBE Records for BBE’s Beat Generation Series. The new project features Guilty Simpson, Defari, Prince Po, Roc C, Oh No, Frank N Dank & Stacy Epps and many more.
Official Tracklisting:
1. The New Resident - Beat Konducta
2. Blow The Horns On ‘Em - Guilty Simpson
3. The Plan Pt. 1 - Georgia Anne Muldrow
4. Tension - Beat Konducta
5. Gamble On Ya Boy - Defari
6. The Ox (805) - MED feat. Poke
7. All Virtue - Beat Konducta
8. Blinfold Test #10 (He Don’t Play) - J.Rocc
9. The Thang-Thang - Price Po
10. Heat - Madlib
11. Smoke Break - Beat Konducta
12. The Plan (Reprise) - Beat Konducta
13. Life - Karriem Riggins
14. Parklight - Beat Konducta
15. Yo Yo Affair Pt. 1 & 2 - Frezna
16. I Want It Back - The Professionals (Oh No & Madlib)
17. Disco Dance - Beat Konducta
18. What It Do - Liberation
19. Take That Money - Roc ‘C’ feat. Oh No
20. Drinks Up! - Frank N Dank
21. The Way That I Live - Stacy Epps
22. Ratrace - Murs
23. Go! - Guilty Simpson
24. Stop - Beat Konducta
 (BlackNews.com) -
One Million Fathers Asked to Lead the Nation Back to School This Fall
"Education has become a matter of national security. Because we cannot control our schools, we cannot control our economy. And because we cannot control our economy, we cannot control and protect our quality of life in America," says Phillip Jackson, Executive Director of The Black Star Project, U.S.A. The Black Star Project is sponsoring the Million Father March 2008 on the first day of school in nearly 300 cities across America. The Million Father March has become a special day that fathers and men use to make a commitment to their children, their families, their communities and their country with their dynamic presence at a school. This is the real fathers' day!
The Million Father March 2008 will play-out at thousands of schools across America and in other parts of the world. About 300,000 men from 127 cities participated in the Million Father March in 2006. An estimated 400,000 men in 238 cities participated in 2007. This year, an estimated 500,000 men from 300 cities are expected to participate. The Million Father March also provides an escort of safety, support, and encouragement to children of all ages on their first day of school. Jackson says, "Gang recruitment, bullying and random violence goes way down on any day that a group of men are at a school."
Research shows that children whose fathers take an active role in their educational lives earn better grades, get better test scores, enjoy school more and are more likely to graduate from high school and attend college. Additionally, children have fewer behavior problems when fathers listen to and talk with them regularly and are active in their lives. A good father is part of a good parent team and is critical to creating a strong family structure. Strong family structures produce children who are more academically proficient, socially developed and self-assured. Such children become adults who are valuable assets to their communities. "Better parents produce better communities, better schools, and better students with higher academic achievements," says Jackson.
Participants in the event include fathers, grandfathers, foster fathers, stepfathers, uncles, cousins, big brothers, significant male caregivers and friends of the family. Although this event is created by Black men, women and men of all races are also encouraged to take their children to school on their first day. Businesses are asked to give fathers and men 2 hours off that morning to take their children to school. Men will also be encouraged to volunteer at schools throughout the year. A special effort will be made to coordinate Latino Fathers in La Marcha de Padres.
Since schools across America and the world start the new school year on different days and months, the March will be a rolling event that takes place on the first day of this school year in cities, villages, and towns between August 7, 2008, and October 13, 2008. The 2008 Million Father March is managed by The Black Star Project, U.S.A. in partnership with the National PTA and the National Fatherhood Initiative. Please visit our website for complete information at www.blackstarproject.org. You may also email blackstar1000@ameritech.net or call 773-285-9600 for more information.
source:(BlackNews.com) -
By NIKO KOPPEL
Published: July 21, 2008
NY TIMES
Alix Dejean lives a long subway ride from Harlem. But being a resident of Brooklyn has not prevented Mr. Dejean from becoming a fixture on the streets of Harlem, where people regularly call out to him by his nickname, “Alley Cat.”
For nearly three decades, Mr. Dejean, 63, a small, neatly dressed man with intense eyes behind thin silver-rimmed frames, has been an unofficial neighborhood photographer, chronicling the famous, the infamous and the anonymous.
Toting a leather bag, in which he carries his 35-millimeter Nikon, Mr. Dejean wanders from block to block, ready to snap portraits during the day and pictures at parties and other celebrations at night. “I’m the people’s photographer,” he said.
Mr. Dejean often photographs people in parks, on brownstone stoops, hanging out at street corners and philosophizing in barbershops. A self-styled entrepreneur, he prints his pictures on glossy paper and offers to sell the images to his subjects for about $20 each. That price is negotiable, however.
The images taken by Mr. Dejean, who said he was influenced by the photographer Gordon Parks, are reminiscent of those of James Van Der Zee, who documented Harlem during its renaissance, and Jamel Shabazz, who recorded the early years of hip-hop culture. Although his works have never been publicly exhibited, they are prized by Harlem residents, tucked in family albums and in frames on apartment walls.
“I’ve seen all the changing faces of Harlem,” Mr. Dejean said, including the emergence of hip-hop, the violent rise of the crack epidemic and the current makeover as a result of gentrification. “You never know what kind of picture you’ll get, because every day it’s a whole new thing.”
Mr. Dejean may be largely unknown south of 96th Street, but when he walked along Frederick Douglass Boulevard recently, he was greeted warmly by merchants, street vendors and others out on the sidewalk. A woman in a gray dress asked for his cellphone number, a group of men waved from lawn chairs and a group of tattooed teenagers shouted out his name across traffic.
Between handshakes and hugs, Mr. Dejean’s photography services were requested for coming block parties, baby showers and cookouts.
“Alix is a legend,” said Jeff Terry, 40, who has been photographed by Mr. Dejean many times. “He’s the ’hood photographer, a real street celebrity.”
In an upstairs office of the Victorian home in Flatbush where he has lived for more than 30 years, Mr. Dejean keeps an archive of thousands of negatives, slides and stacks of 8 x 10 pictures.
In rich Kodachrome prints, teenagers draped in heavy gold chains lounge in beach chairs in front of a housing project, couples dressed in fur coats stare affectionately at each other. A young, smiling Mike Tyson is flanked by two women, his hands around their shoulders showing skinned knuckles. Men pose proudly on a white convertible; some smile, several grimace, while others flash handguns.
Mr. Dejean pores over images of Representative Charles B. Rangel, Don King, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Diddy and Jay-Z, all of whom he has photographed through the years.
For someone who has also taken pictures of some of Harlem’s rougher residents, Mr. Dejean comes from an unlikely background. He was born in Haiti into a wealthy family that once owned sugarcane plantations. His family came to New York in 1965 and settled in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Mr. Dejean studied civil engineering at City College and picked up photography as a hobby, training his lens on jazz performances in the Village.
In the early 1970s, he met Frankie Crocker, a well-known radio D.J., who introduced him to the music scene. That led to assignments from Polydor and Motown Records to photograph artists like James Brown and the Jackson Five. By the mid-1970s, he was shooting candid images of black celebrities like Stevie Wonder at Studio 54 and Muhammad Ali at the Waldorf-Astoria.
It was also around this time that he first became interested in Harlem, when he started photographing boldface names at Leviticus, a popular Midtown disco. “It was from Leviticus that I learned about Uptown,” Mr. Dejean said. It was at the nightclub, he said, that he met the Harlem drug kingpins Leroy Nicholas Barnes and Frank Lucas, who, though bitter rivals, ran in similar circles. Mr. Dejean said Mr. Barnes hired him to photograph his lavish parties.
“When I first met them, I didn’t know what they did,” Mr. Dejean said, “but I photographed them as real people, complex people.”
Exposed to life in Harlem, he began exploring its different corners and photographing people on the streets. His reputation spread by word of mouth, attracting a steady flow of customers. “Harlem is really a small world, like a family, and I know everyone,” said Mr. Dejean, who is married and has two adult children.
On a recent evening, Mr. Dejean stopped for a break at Danny & Mel’s Unisex, a barbershop on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard between 142nd and 143rd Streets. He ran into David Jarvis, 36, a clothing designer, who has been photographed many times by Mr. Dejean, most recently on Father’s Day. Mr. Dejean reached into the bag slung over his shoulder and pulled out a picture of Mr. Jarvis standing with his arm around his son.
Grinning, Mr. Jarvis said, “If he hasn’t taken your picture, you’re a nobody.”
VIA: NYTIMES.COM
By NIKO KOPPEL
Published: July 21, 2008
NY TIMES
Alix Dejean lives a long subway ride from Harlem. But being a resident of Brooklyn has not prevented Mr. Dejean from becoming a fixture on the streets of Harlem, where people regularly call out to him by his nickname, “Alley Cat.”
For nearly three decades, Mr. Dejean, 63, a small, neatly dressed man with intense eyes behind thin silver-rimmed frames, has been an unofficial neighborhood photographer, chronicling the famous, the infamous and the anonymous.
Toting a leather bag, in which he carries his 35-millimeter Nikon, Mr. Dejean wanders from block to block, ready to snap portraits during the day and pictures at parties and other celebrations at night. “I’m the people’s photographer,” he said.
Mr. Dejean often photographs people in parks, on brownstone stoops, hanging out at street corners and philosophizing in barbershops. A self-styled entrepreneur, he prints his pictures on glossy paper and offers to sell the images to his subjects for about $20 each. That price is negotiable, however.
The images taken by Mr. Dejean, who said he was influenced by the photographer Gordon Parks, are reminiscent of those of James Van Der Zee, who documented Harlem during its renaissance, and Jamel Shabazz, who recorded the early years of hip-hop culture. Although his works have never been publicly exhibited, they are prized by Harlem residents, tucked in family albums and in frames on apartment walls.
“I’ve seen all the changing faces of Harlem,” Mr. Dejean said, including the emergence of hip-hop, the violent rise of the crack epidemic and the current makeover as a result of gentrification. “You never know what kind of picture you’ll get, because every day it’s a whole new thing.”
Mr. Dejean may be largely unknown south of 96th Street, but when he walked along Frederick Douglass Boulevard recently, he was greeted warmly by merchants, street vendors and others out on the sidewalk. A woman in a gray dress asked for his cellphone number, a group of men waved from lawn chairs and a group of tattooed teenagers shouted out his name across traffic.
Between handshakes and hugs, Mr. Dejean’s photography services were requested for coming block parties, baby showers and cookouts.
“Alix is a legend,” said Jeff Terry, 40, who has been photographed by Mr. Dejean many times. “He’s the ’hood photographer, a real street celebrity.”
In an upstairs office of the Victorian home in Flatbush where he has lived for more than 30 years, Mr. Dejean keeps an archive of thousands of negatives, slides and stacks of 8 x 10 pictures.
In rich Kodachrome prints, teenagers draped in heavy gold chains lounge in beach chairs in front of a housing project, couples dressed in fur coats stare affectionately at each other. A young, smiling Mike Tyson is flanked by two women, his hands around their shoulders showing skinned knuckles. Men pose proudly on a white convertible; some smile, several grimace, while others flash handguns.
Mr. Dejean pores over images of Representative Charles B. Rangel, Don King, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Diddy and Jay-Z, all of whom he has photographed through the years.
For someone who has also taken pictures of some of Harlem’s rougher residents, Mr. Dejean comes from an unlikely background. He was born in Haiti into a wealthy family that once owned sugarcane plantations. His family came to New York in 1965 and settled in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Mr. Dejean studied civil engineering at City College and picked up photography as a hobby, training his lens on jazz performances in the Village.
In the early 1970s, he met Frankie Crocker, a well-known radio D.J., who introduced him to the music scene. That led to assignments from Polydor and Motown Records to photograph artists like James Brown and the Jackson Five. By the mid-1970s, he was shooting candid images of black celebrities like Stevie Wonder at Studio 54 and Muhammad Ali at the Waldorf-Astoria.
It was also around this time that he first became interested in Harlem, when he started photographing boldface names at Leviticus, a popular Midtown disco. “It was from Leviticus that I learned about Uptown,” Mr. Dejean said. It was at the nightclub, he said, that he met the Harlem drug kingpins Leroy Nicholas Barnes and Frank Lucas, who, though bitter rivals, ran in similar circles. Mr. Dejean said Mr. Barnes hired him to photograph his lavish parties.
“When I first met them, I didn’t know what they did,” Mr. Dejean said, “but I photographed them as real people, complex people.”
Exposed to life in Harlem, he began exploring its different corners and photographing people on the streets. His reputation spread by word of mouth, attracting a steady flow of customers. “Harlem is really a small world, like a family, and I know everyone,” said Mr. Dejean, who is married and has two adult children.
On a recent evening, Mr. Dejean stopped for a break at Danny & Mel’s Unisex, a barbershop on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard between 142nd and 143rd Streets. He ran into David Jarvis, 36, a clothing designer, who has been photographed many times by Mr. Dejean, most recently on Father’s Day. Mr. Dejean reached into the bag slung over his shoulder and pulled out a picture of Mr. Jarvis standing with his arm around his son.
Grinning, Mr. Jarvis said, “If he hasn’t taken your picture, you’re a nobody.”
VIA: NYTIMES.COM
Last week, death row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal filed an appeal of a March 27 US Third Circuit Court ruling that rejected his bid for a new guilt-phase trial.
On the 4th of July in Philadelphia, over 75 supporters of Abu-Jamal gathered at the Liberty Bell, including NYC rappers Rebel Diaz (pictured), former Ossining NAACP President Sundiata Sadiq, Theresa Shoatz, and Pam Africa. [View Photos and Video Here] Issue #3 of Abu-Jamal-News was released, spotlighting Freedom Archives, this fall's CR10 conference in Oakland, CA, organizing to abolish the prison industrial complex, the NYC Jerchico March to the United Nations demanding freedom for all political prisoners and POWs, and updates on the cases of political prisoners Ruchell Magee, Hugo Pinell, Leonard Peltier, the San Francisco Eight, Kansas City Five, and Omaha Two. [View PDF Here.]
via:
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/
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