CRAP/ My Journal by Al Brathway

September 26th, Wednesday/ Man, I was watching a show last night about what it cost to create a beat for a rap song and it hit me like a shot... Nas (the rapper) is right. Hip Hop is DEAD! I remember when hip hop got started. It was a movement. It was a mobilization of young people creating a subculture and being heard. It started a new language, a new dance, a new artform... It started a new dress code and new music and a whole new way of life for young cats! Even though it was out of my reach, I was feeling it bigtime! But now... Something got in there and f#@ked the whole thing up! Now you have the same elements that screwed up the principles of America screwing up the hip hop movement! Back in the day, rap music had a deep message for the community... It was about uplifting a race, a generation... Now all they talk about is assimilating the unethical rich. Hell, the forefathers of hip hop must be spinning in their studio chairs, seeing the kind of money they can't make because the movement has passed them by... the very movement they created! How sad is that? You create something with all the right intentions only to have it snatched from under you because you didn't get it patented!/ Sorry, I gotta go. I feel another movement coming on... It's my bowels./ CRAP!

COMMENTARY/ by A. Dacosta Brathway

New York/ It's been almost a week now since the NBA draft has been held and it is still at the top of the sports talk list. That being said, I started thinking about what went down that night at Madison Square Garden and there was one thing that struck me. Is the "hip hop nation" now reverting back to some clothing choice sensibility? I do not usually watch the draft from year to year so it struck me as odd how sensible the brothers looked that night. What happened to those long ass preacher's jackets and those big ass baggy pants with the Stacy Adams "square toe Gators?" I can still see Jalen Rose in that hideous red (pin stripe)suit... DAMN! It reminded me of the beginning of Spike Lee's film, Malcolm X, when Denzel and Spike took that bamma ass walk through town with those suits on in those weird ass colors. But who knows what can and will happen next year? The style may go right into something even weirder than I have ever seen! I probably should have video taped the draft this year to have something to compare next year's draft with. Upon further review, why do I even care?