Hip-Hop News

Article: “Has Hip-Hop Had an Adverse Effect on Our Young?” by ScholarMan
The other day while I was updating my account on Twitter, I noticed a “re-tweet” from an associate of mine. For those new to Twitter lingo, a re-tweet is when you re-post something someone already posted, including the original author to give them credit for their post. For the sake of non-name dropping I will leave their account names out. 

The re-tweet was this: 

“i HATE to say it but truly think hip hop had an adverse effect on a lotta brotha’s character development [folks gon b mad i said it]

2:07 PM Sep 15^th”  (more…)

Chali 2na was Hip Hop Official’s artist of the week this week. If you havent yet, pick up “Fish Outta Water.”

Distrakt is one of my favorite underground emcees. Recently, he’s been doing a lot of work with Sedgwick and Cedar. This video walks you through his newest creation, a FREE downloadable interactive study of the history of hip-hop. Dope and educational.

You don’t normally think of rap stars as having much to do with Washington’s health care debate. After all, hip-hop is mainly about young people and young people almost never think they’re going to get sick. But, even rappers get older, if they’re lucky. Bodies begin to give out, doctor bills begin to pile up and suddenly that health care debate hits home.

“Normally I find it kind of hard being a part of things like this,” said hip-hop artist Malik Taylor, better known as “Phife” or “Phife Dawg” from the Billboard award-winning rap group A Tribe Called Quest. (more…)

With President Obama pushing to create millions of new “green-collar” jobs, being eco-conscious might not just be a good idea, it may become a lucrative one as well. But buying organic, starting your own garden and living the sustainable life can be expensive, and for many people, it might feel as though the green movement is a nice but unavailable crusade that has all but passed them by. (more…)

This is a artist feature for the 2009 Rock The Bells tour. This feature is on K’naan, who’s “Troubadour” remains one of the top albums of the year.

This is a CNN report on the Hip-Hop Caucus’ “Green the Block Initiative,” a campaign intended to address urban poverty and climate change at the same time.

The power of music and the power of politics met Tuesday, with a hip-hop mogul and one of the most prominent leaders in Congress joining their considerable forces to spotlight issues facing youth in America.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attended a youth conference co-sponsored by entrepreneur and entertainer Russell Simmons in Washington. The one-day event, called Keeping the Promise to Our Children, brought legislators together with entertainment A-listers, including Oscar-nominee Terrence Howard, who used their celebrity to advocate a variety of causes: foster care, health care and education among them. (more…)

The Maqusi Towers in Gaza City look a bit like US housing projects. The neighborhood consists of several tall apartment buildings grouped together in the northern part of town. It is also ground zero for Gaza’s growing Hip-Hop community. On a recent evening in one small but well-decorated apartment, a dozen rappers and their friends and families relaxed, danced, smoked flavored tobacco, and rapped the lyrics to some of their songs. (more…)

This article was titled “Mos Def is most thoughtful as he focuses on myriad projects” by USA Today – Mos Def can’t suppress sheer delight over the exotic strains, heady beats and slurry flow of politically charged poetry on his new album, in stores Tuesday. That joy does not explain its title, “The Ecstatic.” Such logic would be too tidy for hip-hop’s cerebral agitator. “The Ecstatic” borrows its name from Victor LaValle’s 2002 darkly comic novel about an obese college dropout sinking into mental illness as his colorful Queens, N.Y., family copes. (more…)