Chico Town: May 2005 - Urban Latino Life & Politics for the Hip Hop Generation

Miami Beach Police vs. Hip Hop: Part 2

Before the Miami Beach Police got their hands on Tha Union Entertainment's own CALIBA, there was Titus "Stepchild" Berry. The only difference between them was that Titus is not a rapper, instead he just happen to be another black man at the other end of the Miami Beach Police's night sticks. A black man with a B.S. in physics and a master's degree in education from Tennessee State University who once had a promising career in the Miami-Dade County public school system.

The Miami New Times reports:

".. nearly four years ago, Friday, August 3, 2001 ... Titus Berry and [friend] Taisha Auguste were stopped in [a] ground-floor parking garage by two Miami Beach police officers .. who questioned Auguste before asking Berry to produce identification. When [Berry] asked the officers why they wanted to see his ID, one of them allegedly struck him violently across his face, knocking him unconscious for several seconds. "I never saw it coming," Berry says today. "It was totally unprovoked."

Berry says when he regained consciousness, he found himself face-down in a puddle and could hear the officers using racial epithets as they hit him; another officer, Sgt. Mario Rojo, who arrived after Moraga and Payne, began kicking him. "They called me a rap nigger," he recounts, noting that his beating occurred two weeks before Miami Beach hosted the first of two hip-hop music awards shows sponsored by The Source magazine. "They were telling me they were going to stick a broomstick up my ass. They were telling me they weren't going to let the rap niggers take over Miami Beach. I was trying to tell them I was a teacher. "

Things didn't get any better for Berry, after years of recovering from depression and homelessness following the incident, he was living back in Miami Beach and taking the police to court in a lawsuit over the beating. Then on April 14 about 2:30 a.m, Miami Beach police officers ran up into his apartment and threatened his life. He has since fled the city and is still fighting for his chance to get justice in court.

We pray and hope that all is well with Titus "Stepchild" Berry, a cool, laid-back personal friend who became another unfortunate victim of police brutality.
Read the full story here courtesy of the Miami New Times.

Also read about CALIBA's police brutality incident with the Miami Beach Police courtesty of the Urban America News Network.

Miami Beach vs. Hip Hop: Memorial Day sabotage

They're at it again! The City of Miami Beach, FL and their ongoing beef with the urban extravaganza that is Memorial Day Weekend on South Beach has hit a new low.

This weekend brings "over 350,000 Participants ... and Transformed The Entire City Into A Four Day Power Packed Urban Paradise (read more)" that attracts artists like Busta Rhymes, P.Diddy, The Neptunes, Russel Simmons, and many more of Hip Hop's elite to party, network, and enjoy the holiday. But ever since 1999 when the crowd and the hype started escalating, the Miami Beach city council, the police, and the most racist among the residents started acting a fool trying to prevent Memorial Day weekend from being so urban ("black").

The Miami Beach police are already known for acts of police brutality against rappers (namely Caliba), but now the city council has purposely scheduled a complete construction project that has gutted Washington Ave (map), the main street of South Beach! This has created a traffic jam catastrophe and is enough of a hassle, with the construction crew & their equipment, to turn you off to being on Miami Beach in the first place.

Who in their right mind would tear up Washington Ave on South Beach for blocks on Memorial Day weekend? Oh wait, the hating ass Miami Beach city council that wants to discomfort the thousands of paying customers who want to enjoy the weekend, too bad most of them are Black and Latino. If they say it isn't a race thing, then what is it, a Hip Hop thing? Regardless of what excuse is used this is an attack on our culture by some hating ass bastards. Ask Uncle Luke from the 2 Live Crew, Disco Rick, or the NAACP how Miami Beach has tried to suppress Hip Hop related events on Memorial Day weekend!

We can't wait until MLK gets put on the US $20 dollar bill (join the movement here) so they can no longer refuse "colored" money on Memorial Day or 365 days a year.

Chuck D coming back "On The REAL"!

So in the last post we were complaining that radio sucks for not playing Styles P's new afro-centric anthem "I'm Black", and then along comes the news that Public Enemy's own Chuck D is getting his radio show back on Air America Radio called "On the Real". His co-host is writer/producer Gia Garel and she had this to say about the show:

On The Real is positioned to be an excellent platform for artist and community advocacy, as well as encouraging this era's renaissance with constructive thinking and the promotion of global talent. This promises to be talk radio specially flavored, such as a James Brown song was seasoned with soul and rhythm for the body, yet had a fiery and timely message for the mind.

This can only mean that with On The Real, musicians and advocates of progressive thought and urban culture now have a spot to get their music & voices heard.

The show will debut Sunday May 29th from 11:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m. ET on Air America Radio (you can hear it live online, in your local AM station, thru satellite radio, or whutever).

Much luv to Chuck D, don't forget that the new Public Enemy CD is dropping soon! Peace

Styles P is too BLACK for radio

As reported on Sohh.com, Styles P's new single "I'm Black" is not getting the love it deserves on mainstream radio. Like the report mentioned, on his debut album, Holiday Style's first single was about smoking week and getting "high, high, high, everyday..." and boom its everywhere!!! Now he feels compelled to write something conscious and relevant to the black community and it's shunned. It's a shame, check out the report:

Though the song hasn't officially been banned, it has yet to garner significant airplay. On the song, Styles, who is mostly known for his tough talk, delivers an uplifting message backed by Floetry. "I'm Black/ Even though my skin's kinda light/ That means my ancestors was raped by somebody white," Styles offers in the first verse. Now heads are saying that the... single... has been blacklisted because it doesn't fit radio's ideal portrayal of blackness. While "I'm Black" has been snubbed, Styles' 2002 weed anthem, "Good Times" received massive nationwide airplay. "I'm Black" was released in early 2005 and has yet to pick up steam.

The song is really tight, if crap like "White Tee's" can get crazy spins on the radio then "I'm Black" should at least get some late-nite play. Like dead prez says "Turn off the RADIO / Turn off that bullshit!"

Star Wars: Anti Bush

Well it's not really just anti Bush, its anti-fascism, anti-dictatorships, and in some parts (sorry for the spoiler), anti-acting. Episode III anyways. But we're not here to give a movie review just touch on the obvious anti-Bush messages found in the Star Wars Saga. At the Cannes film festival, Director George Lucas dropped these quotes regarding Star Wars Episode III:

"The issue was, how does a democracy turn itself into a dictatorship?" he said.
He acknowledged an uncomfortable feeling that the United States was in danger of losing its democratic ideals, like in the movie.

"I didn't think it was going to get this close. I hope this doesn't come true in our country."

Although he didn't mention Bush by name, Lucas took what sounded like another dig while explaining the transformation of the once-good Anakin Skywalker to the very bad Darth Vader.

"Most bad people think they're good people," he said.

It's the same way that the Bush Crime Family claim they are doing God's work by attacking other nations. In Star Wars, the emperor is playing both sides, the Seperatists and the Republic, he helped build the Clone army AND the Droid Army, created a huge war between the armies, convinced the galactic senate that he needed emergency powers to fight the war, eroded the freedom's of the citizens of the Republic, and inevitably created a huge empire with a big ass army that he got to keep after the "war" ended. A war he created.

Isn't it funny how Osama Bin Laden was once trained and armed by the United States also? Isn't funny how OUR senate was duped into enacting crap like the Patriot Act that erodes our own personal liberties?

Too bad the Jedi have more balls than the Democrats in their attempt at stopping the Empire from emerging. We'd put Yoda in office in a heart beat.

Related Hip Hop Quotable:
"Cause America's been took - it's plain to see /
The oldest trick in the book is MAKE an enemy
Of phony evil so the government can do it's dirt /
And take away ya freedom lock and load, beat and search"

- Paris on "What Would you Do?" of the album Sonic Jihad

Newsweek got it Right: Koran got flushed!

Check out this report by Joshua Frank at DissidentVoice.com that outlines evidence that the US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba were in fact flushing the Koran down the toilet.

What's worse is that the rat bastard Don Rumsfeld all of the sudden "cares" that people lost their lives over what they call shady reports. Like lying to the world about WMDs and causing the deaths of over 1500+ US Soldiers and over 100,000 Iraqi citizens doesn't sound familiar. Like they said over at DailyKos: Pot, meet Kettle!

Might Mos Def - the friggin Savior of Hip Hop

While some of ya'll might not have liked The New Danger, Mos is back at it again recording for his third album and a possible new Black Star album with Talib Kweli. But Mos had some tough words for the Lil' Jon's East Side Boyz and Interscope Record's head honcho Jimmy Iovine. On HipHopSite.com they quoted Mos Def in The Source saying:

"Our priorities is gettin' fucked. Lil Jon-I love his music. But why are the East Side Boyz names Big Sam and Lil Bo? What the fuck? What's next, Kunta and Kinte? ... What are we supposed to tell our kids? After Malcolm, Martin and Dubois we got Sam-Bo? I'm supposed to be down with that 'cause it makes me dance?"

"Lyor is NOT happy about Jay Z being president of [Def Jam]. I dont give a fuck what he say. If the dude could go from rhyming to being a CEO in 10 years or less, what is he going to be in 15 or 20? He might have Lyor's job at this rate"

Ya'll need to download "The Rapeover" from iTunes right now if you don't already have the track. Mos Def is spitting straight fire, aiming for the throat of the Hip Hop industry. This guy should run for president!

UPDATE: The Anti-Gang Bill Passed!

Yeah, that horrible gang bill that we mentioned earlier this week has just passed in the House of Representatives with a 279-144 vote. Here are two fucked up quotes from the CNN story:

While the bill authorizes $387.5 million over the next five years to fight street crimes, Democrats said the cost of accommodating new prison inmates alone would exceed $9 billion over the next decade.

And

... sentencing requirements would disproportionately affect minorities, remove the discretion of judges and swell prison populations without stopping crime.

These assholes want to keep us locked up instead of spending the 387.5 million on better schools, after school programs, and community development programs to improve our standards of living. But remember, under that law even rap groups are considered a gang just for having 3 or more people! Are any of you pissed yet? Are we going to continue rhyming about bling bling bullshit when congress is sentencing our people to DEATH and LIFE IN PRISON simply for trying to survive? Wake up!

This modern world gets scarier!

This cartoon from Tom Tomorrow's "This Modern World" would have been funny had the National ID plan not passed so easily this week. Now it's downright scary.

"Freedom Guidelines" instead of "Martial Law"? We'd put money on the possibility that they'd actually do such a thing and give it a cute name to keep the sheep happy. Don't forget that the Bush Crime Family called their anti-environmental plan the "Clear Skies" initiative! This cartoon may be prophetic. Lord help us!

Check out the rest of Tom's cartoons, he's got some tight ones there that will wake your ass up.

Kiss privacy goodbye! Say hello to the Police State...

Its official, we now have NATIONAL ID's! Yes, national ID cards, the States have to reformat and restructure driver's licenses to adhere to a federal standard that will most likely contain an RFID chip that will store your personal data.

Anyone who has ever heard of or read about RFID chips knows that anyone with a chip reader can get a hold of your info. Any cop, government official, or stranger could find out all of your info without having to go into your pockets or even asking for ID. Say goodbye to your privacy! Say goodbye to remaining anonymous.

To all of those dumb fucks who say "I have nothing to hide, I'm a law abiding citizen..." well then have fun being treated like cattle, tagged and watched on your every move. Enjoy being sheep, enjoy having your civil rights violated, enjoy watching your constitution and bill of rights get raped. Enjoy your selves!

For everyone else that is pissed, its time to make noise! Bitch out your Senators and Representatives for destroying our country. Peace!

DEATH PENALTY for "GANG" members? WTF???

This is one of the most horrible piece of shit proposals sitting in Congress right now. The Gang Deterrence and Community Protection Act of 2005 (H.R. 1279) wants to impose the death penalty for "gang" crimes. What do they call a "gang"? Here it goes:

`(1) CRIMINAL STREET GANG- The term `criminal street gang' means a formal or informal group or association of 3 or more individuals, who commit 2 or more gang crimes... (look up 1279 at http://thomas.loc.gov/ and see for yourself)

What is a gang crime, you ask? Anything from fighting to possessing stolen goods counts as a "gang crime" in this new proposal.

So... if you and 2 of your hommies (strike one) are ever get caught fighting (strike two) and one of you had something stolen (strike 3) then they'll call you guys a "street gang" and sentence you to DEATH! Still don't believe it? Look it up!

Want to stop this? Well, luckily the ACLU are already on the case and they got an online form you can use to email your local Representative to bitch em out over this bill. Get involved, make noise, call a congress person, because for the Hip Hop generation it could mean our lives!

Puff puff... pass me some jail time

Check out this new article from the Washington Post that shows that law enforcement is clearly discriminating when it comes to drug arrests:

The focus of the drug war in the United States has shifted significantly over the past decade from hard drugs to marijuana, which now accounts for nearly half of all drug arrests nationwide, according to an analysis of federal crime statistics released yesterday.

Also:

The study ... found that arrests for marijuana account for nearly all of the increase in drug arrests seen during the 1990s. The report also found that one in four people in state prisons for marijuana offenses can be classified as a "low-level offender," and it estimated that $4 billion a year is spent on arresting and prosecuting marijuana crimes.

In addition, the study showed that although African Americans make up 14 percent of marijuana users generally, they account for nearly a third of all marijuana arrests.

No more chasing after the expensive drugs that only the elite can afford and consume. How about sticking it to druggie Rush Limbaugh instead of the nickel-bag tokin' folks from around the block?