Blackcard It's a Movement: 2010

Friday, December 31, 2010

Sam Cooke A change is Gonna come

Let's Grind like we don't need the money, Party like they playing Prince 1999, Dance like we on Dances with the Stars and make records that will change the culture and the

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Live From the Muthafuckin' Pen

Music has moved me. Hip-hop has allowed me to see the world, meet thousands of cool, weird and interesting people, and party in every five-star club and hole in the wall this country has to offer. While I love the music as a whole, southern music has a special place in my heart. The rest of the culture may focus on the Soulijah Boy's and Hurricane Chris' and the other commercial rap music that radio programmers prefer. However, for those that have been raised on this music, know that that's not a true testament of our brilliance.

In 1996, two young men from Port Author Texas created a classic that helped raise a generation of Southern boys to men. Chad Butler and Bernard Freeman spoke on much more than drugs, money and prostitution. While they preached on those subjects in abundance, they painted a mural of southern urban life in a way that we could understand. Tupac was gone and Biggie, while New York right fully loved him didn't connect with us like Butler and Freeman did. Ridin Dirty was narrated from a place to many young black men know to well. The album begins with the introduction of its narrator Smizznot muthfucking D "Live from the muthafucking Pen"; As he tells you of the life that he lives everyday, in a Texas maximum security penitentiary and Butler and Freeman tell you of life in the streets. The similarities of the two stories that should be worlds apart, but aren't is remarkable and shameful at the same time.

The first piece of this journey begins with a soulful Isley Brothers sample called One Day, Butler's production while erie, sooths the spirit and leaves you with the image of late night walk through a cemetery. As Ronald Isley reminds us that "One day you are here the next day your gone," the pair tells stories of decisions that lead to demise of the innocent as well as guilty. They do not fall into the trap that most gangster rap does of glorifying drugs and drug trafficking. It is always last resort of being dealt a bad hand by the circumstances of life in the the hood.

They take 13 tracks to speak on everything from single parenting, drugs trafficking, unsafe sex to poverty and lack of education in the under-developed third-world neighborhoods of our inner cities. Freeman reminds us that our government would rather build prisons and projects than schools and provide job training. The simplicity to which they are able to paint a picture with only a few words is amazing. "A man will commit a crime because the fucking crime pays" says much more than the 11 words would let on. Mass media would rather you believe that the black community is filled with sociopaths and lunatics that are merely criminals that are wired wrong as opposed to looking to why I man would turn to a life of crime to feed his family. Ten years later after I had my first child I truly understood what Butler who at times goes by the moniker of Sweet James Jones' meant when he says, "I got a baby but his momma act like he ain't mine" on Diamonds and Wood.

The sadness of this whole thing is that Butler and Freeman lived more like their ultra egos than most entertainers do. The realness that captivated us to them ultimately lead to the early death of Chad Butler also known as Sweet James Jones but better known as Pimp C. Leaving behind his partner in crime and music Bernard Freeman better known as Bun B to carry on the flag of the Under Ground Kingz as a solo artists. In 1996 UGK release Ridin Dirty on Jive Records and with no major label promotion, video play or radio friendly records and they were still able to influence a generation of young southern boys who were looking for something to hold on to and guide them into manhood. In their attempts to simply tell their story as they knew it, they created a masterpiece. So as that album ended with Pimp C, with his ultra cool never changing voice pleading with us for 3 shout outs for Larry Hoover, I end this piece in memory of him.

Chad Butler 3 shots, free Chad Butler, free Chad Butler, free Chad Butler. Long live the Pimp and Underground Kingz forever.