It's Bigger Than Us 2008

It's bigger than us. And by us I mean the 21-35 generation x kids who grew up watching 106 and Park and TRL and barely can remember when rap music wasn't on MTV. It's bigger than us. Because we didn't have to walk on Washington and we sat in the back of the bus because that's where we wanted to sit, not because we were forced to or have to riot because one of our leaders was assassinated. Since we had no political leaders that related to us, we turned Tupac into our revolutionary and rappers became the voice of a misguided generation that had nothing to hold on to or nothing to look forward to. A man is a dangerous animal when he has nothing to live for.

And with that came the rise of American Gangsters and dope boyz in the trap and drug dealers became local legends and later in their careers music moguls. While single mothers in the hood told little boys and girls you can be anything you want to be, you don't have to be like the rest of them. Drugs and basketball aren't they only way out. And some replied yeah I'm going to be a rapper. And she told you that's not what she meant, you can be president. And I myself was one of those children and looked at her and thought this lady is on that shit, because my name isn't Bill or William, or George or any other presidential name and then I thought; if she wanted me to be president she should have started by giving me the right name to start. Then I also realized none of the presidents looked like me and she was just pumping my head with noise because it sounded good.

But as I said when I started it is bigger than us. This moment in time, while we pivot role in it was not really for us. It is bigger than us. It is for our grandparents that day dream and have nightmares when you mention things like Selma, Willie Lynch, a young Atlanta preacher named after a catholic revolutionary Martin Luther, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Malcom Little aka Malcolm X aka Malik Shabazz. This moment is for then for everything that we took for granted, that they indured. This is their time to rejoice and praise God for the dream that has come to fruition. More importantly this moment is for the next generation, for my two year old son Davin that will never question me when I tell him that he can be anything he wants to be including president and he doesn't have to have a presidential name or presidential background to win. This moment is for my son who is to young to get it yet, because 2am is way past his bed time. This is for our kids that we must realize have far fewer obstacles in front of them than our parents did. Kids who not only play football and basketball, but golf and tennis as well. This is for those who will grow up believing YES WE CAN.

Sell Your Dreams

Sell your dreams! Sell your dreams! Sell your dreams! And as odd as that may sound, I besiege you to sell you dreams.

We have all dreamed of doing something great or grandiose, even bigger than life; but usually somewhere along the way someone or something happened that made you think that dream was unattainable. When you were a child you never said, "I want to make $100,000 a year." You said, "I want to be the richest man in the world." Along the way you compromised and decided that you just needed to get to a respectable tax bracket. I beg you, even plead with you to recall those childhood dreams that for so long you thought were unrealistic.

After you remember that dream and take ownership of it, I then ask you to then sell it to whoever will listen, whoever will help facilitate it, whoever you come in contact with. And I realize at this point you may be perplexed and utterly confused about what the hell I'm asking you to do. What I have come to realie is "that all we have is us," and "no man is an island." In layman's terms, we all need each other and to make those aforementioned dreams a reality, you must sell them to others and turn them into full fledged believers, card carrying Kool Aid drinking members.

Everyone who has ever done anything great, or of any magnitude sold their dream to others. Without this act you are dead because a man who has nothing to look forward to has nothing to live for. What do Jesus, Ghandi, Martin Luther, Bill Gates, Oprah, Cornell Sanders and the list go on and on have in common? They all started with a dream, that may have seemed a bit overly ambitious to everyone else, and they all sold that dream to start a movement and turn their belief structure into a reality. It is time to become better salesman.

So your mission today is to:
1. Remember and take ownership of those dreams that you forgot about from childhood.

2. Figure out who can help in your pursuit to turn that dream into a reality and sell it to them.

Just My Thoughts

Just My Thoughts
America needs to get off the pacifier. We have been pampered and babied for so long, we don't realize what we have here in opportunities and possibilities. We have created a generation that believes every one deserves a medal. Everybody is a winner. And the government, credit repair specialists, Betty Ford, your parents and everyone else for that matter are here to fix your problems when you mess up.

We have a bail out generation that wants handouts, welfare, tax cuts, universal health care and help paying their over-priced mortgages, but no one wants to pay for it. As sad as it may seem, everybody can't own a home and everybody is not a winner. It sucks sometimes, but it is true. And while everyone screams about universal health care, I don't hear to many volunteering to be the first in line to help foot the bill so that the single mother doesn't have to uses the ER as her kid's general practitioner.

This economic meltdown may very well have been what the doctor ordered. Since 1982, we have experienced some of the greatest economic prosperity that the world has ever seen. We have a ME ME ME, NOW NOW NOW attitude that puts no value on the ability to delay gratification or a desire to conserve. While there is a pill for every problem; somewhere along the line we lost our way, our ability to deal with problems and put more value in things than we each other. We have leveraged our future by gambling with what we speculated we would have left over after we spent most of what we made today.

I don't have all the answers, but if someone yells at the top of their lungs, "your basement is flooded, your toilets are overflowing and their are rats in your living room," maybe someone will realize that we have problems and need take a serious look at ourselves.

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

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.

Diddy - Dirty Money - Coming Home ft. Skylar Grey

Big K.R.I.T. - Children Of The World (Directed By Creative Control)