A Warped POV by A. Dacosta Brathway

Wednesday, October 15th.../ Well... It has finally come to a head! I have been hearing this for years. I never thought it would come to this but it is here and it is alive and well! Ever since the '60's, there was talk of it. There were "militant" groups claiming that it was going to happen, in the form of a revolution, but the movement died when the government offered jobs to the leaders of said movement and television exec's proved that it (the movement) would not be televised. The next time I heard it was in the WWE when there was a band of rogue wrestlers threatening to take over. ("Hulk Hogan" actually led the group but reverted back to "HULKAMANIA" as a result of the backlash from the fans!) Then it happened! A subculture developed in the South Bronx. It was harmless in its origin. There was weird dancing on cardboard; there was graffiti on the subway trains and the walls of buildings, but it was harmless stuff. The music changed but it was no big deal. What? Rap to sampled music... Okay, so some guys ripped off some music that was just lying around. I mean it wasn't like the old heads was bitchin' about it. (Not at first anyway) It was a new perspective. So what if a guy couldn't sing? He could rap (talk) to music. It basically served the same purpose. There was politically conscious music and music where the lyrics described a guy wanting some booty from his girl...(or a girl!) There were songs that described all kinds of scenarios. Rap was no different except in its presentation.

But, now I see the "reality show" has brought back the premise of which I started. The movement is back and it is being portrayed thru hip-hop. The movement is called "The New World Order!" TV sit-coms are dead! TV dramas are dead. Game shows don't have a chance... I don't care what the Neilson Ratings show! The reality show genre is producing shows that allow gangsta rappers to dictate how business is done. And why not? The economy has fallen apart under the watch of those who are supposed to have a handle on OUR money. We are fighting a war for whatever reason. The Stock Market is flipping like pancakes at a Sunday breakfast! We finally have a, seemingly, worthy Black candidate for president but things are so messed up, he will not be able to fix it; which, in turn, will make him look like some rank amateur (which is probably a step up) when it is all said and done!/ Hey Fiddy (Cent), let me be on your show? I could use $100,00.00 right about now! Yo Diddy, holla at me about those vacant spots in one of your ten companies! You said it yourself that there was plenty of room left at the end of "I Want To Work For Diddy!" Shit... I could work for Russell Simmons and think of funny ass clothes to wear. If the hip-hoppers can pull off wearing prison wear and make it a fashion statement, how hard is it to suggest wearing a platinum belt to fashion crazy teanagers? And, I would solve the problem by dispelling any notion that the wearer is nobody's bitch and/or there is a load in his drawers!/ The New World Order...Who would have "thunk" it? Now you can come out of the 'hood, uneducated by formal means, dress all wacky, speak in Ebonics and make a crap load of cash, live in a mansion, drive a Bentley, and act like you come from "Inherited Old Money!"

Excerpt from "My Life Sucked..." by A. Dacosta Brathway

...As a part of my socialization process, my mother introduced me to jazz music. This was significant because I was diggin' music that my peers could not even get to (which made me hipper than them!). My mother must have been in entertainment in another life because she was always singing and dancing around the house. She talked about her days when she hung out at a dance hall or the movies or a concert. Her album pile consisted of Dakota Staton, Nancy Wilson, Billie Holiday... All smooth singers that hung out in Harlem back in the day. To be honest, I didn't really care about that style of jazz but it did motivate me to get into cats like Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Byrd, and Coltrane (when he went into his transendental spiritual meditation bag! There were others... Bobby Hutchinson, McCoy Tyner, Andrew Hill, Greshen Moncur, Dizzy... I was so far gone at 15 years old, it wasn't even funny. I actually wanted to become a jazz musician but I didn't have the one main ingredient a musician needed to have... I couldn't play an instrument worth a shit! And gettin' high did not help my plight. But I had everything else a jazz musician had. I had the look, the voice (you know, low and raspy), the walk and the drugs. I wanted to be down so bad, I thought about joining the school jazz band and strapping a kazoo to a tenor sax just so I could be down! It probably worked out for the better though. If I had got down the way I wanted to, I wouldn't be writing this now. I'd be dead and, probably, would not have become world renowned the way my idols did. And, in retrospect, I would have gone overboard. I would have so cool, I would have been too cool for my peers and they would have shunned me anyway. But, now that I know what I know, I should have done it because my life is really fucked up now and I didn't have a blast getting to this point!

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!