bigted

Basically all the ones I'd call classics except I'd take "Ready To Die", "Blueprint" and "Marshall Mathers LP" off the list, those are the 3 most overrated albums ever that the MTV crowd of teenagers are most familiar with, they might as well take Public Enemy off the list and mention "Country Grammar" to make it a least only teenagers will be familiar with, I borrow those albums from some of my friends that rely on MTV for their hip-hop but I wouldn't be caught dead with them in my collection, I always get into fights with them and tell them that there's a whole world of hip-hop out there beyond the radio and MTV, AOL sucks, I wouldn't put those in my top 100(especailly Marshall Mathers LP, I could name 20 albums from 1999-2000 that're better easily) if they don't mention real hip-hop classics like KRS' "Criminal Minded", LL's "Mama Said Knock You Out", or Slick Rick's "Great Adventures Of Slick Rick", and like usual JJFP get no love, selling 30 million albums and yet none of them get mentioned, wtf, "He's The DJ, I'm The Rapper" is top 5 easily, "Code Red" top 20, "Lost and Found"(the album of the decade so far) and "Willenium" top 50 with "Big Willie Style" and "Homebase" in the top 100, with "Rock The House" and "And In This Corner..." ahead of "Marshall Mathers LP". Why doesn't any of Queen Latifah, MC Hammer, Heavy D, Pete Rock and CL Smooth, Naughty By Nature, Busta Rhymes, or Salt-N-Pepa albums get any love? I hate the media's lists, I rather make my own or ask knowledgable hip-hop heads like AJ or Tim if I need schooling on what classic album I need for for my CD collection.

Ja Rule's 1st 2 albums are better than anything 50 Cent has ever done, I hope he goes back to that form again, if he steps it up and sounds more intelligent he might be, I wonder if Kanye's gonna produce the album, lol.

I found this on Jazzy Jeff's board, I guess Tim posted there, well I'm gonna post it here, I wonder why Will ain't gonna be there? :shrug: "go along to this and support the victims of hurricane katrina.. from the Philadelphia Inquirer http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/ma...ly/12585672.htm Two Katrina benefits here on Saturday Big names will gather here Saturday for two Hurricane Katrina benefit concerts. Charles "Charlie Mac" Alston, whose Party 4 Peace Celebrity Weekend brought stars here in July, is staging a concert at the Dell East in East Fairmount Park. Alston, a longtime Will Smith confidant and music insider, says he has booked Eve, Musiq, Floetry, Freeway, Tony Moore's Jehovah Children, Young Gunz, Ms. Jade, and DJ Jazzy Jeff to perform at the Project Brotherly Love Concert, running from 2 to 7 p.m. at the city-owned venue on 33d Street near Ridge Avenue. "It wasn't a hard thing to think about," Alston said. "It seemed like the right thing to do." Alston said that among the guests will be displaced Southerners who have been relocated here. The $15 admission will go toward the American Red Cross, he said. Information: 267-228-9809. Country star Alan Jackson's concert at the Tweeter Center in Camden at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, sponsored by radio station WXTU-FM (92.5), has become a hurricane benefit for the Red Cross. Jackson, WXTU owner Beasley Broadcast Group, and Tweeter management each will contribute $1 per ticket to the effort. If all 25,000 tickets are sold (lawn seats are $27.50), they'll donate $75,000.

:lolsign:

FP should do a new song produced by Kanye West about Hurricane Katrina, maybe throw R. Kelly on the chorus, that'd be some soulpower, it wouldn't hurt to throw LL and Rev. Run on the song either.

Biggie said it himself that the Junior M.A.F.I.A. wasn't rappers, they were just his crew he would chill with, he signed them and wrote rhymes for them to make an album, they didn't get signed 'cause they would win battles on the streets, I don't think Lil' Kim could freestyle when she never really wrote much of her rhymes ever, Biggie and Diddy had a lot of input on "Hardcore" too, her recent stuff sucks maybe that's 'cause she does it on her own now, if they weren't down with Biggie they'd still be broke, this is what a lot of rappers do, they sign their talentless friends and the ones who really have talent can't get the deals, look at G Unit and D12, Tony Yayo and Bizarre are battle rappers? :rofl:

Bush's approval rating went down to 39 percent from 40 percent last week so that means a lot of this country still agrees with Kanye! I still think that there's a prejudice towards blacks but I also think there's also a prejudice towards poor people that're any color by the government leaders that're black or white, it's a class issue, these people barely had anything before the storm hit to begin with. I think most of the new jobs that Bush is coming up with now are minimum wage jobs so a lot of poverty will still be around, I could see it for myself since I can't find a computer programming job in my area and all I see is places like Burger King and Kmart hiring, I'm still waiting on them to hire me too and I got a high school diploma but they rather hire 16-year olds or women and pay them less, you shouldn't have to move to another area to find the job you want or just get a job period since this is a land of opportunity, it depresses me too when I was working in a dollar store and I see people using credit card to buy a container of milk, this is how poor we've become that we don't have $2 in our pockets anymore? I heard they're giving hard time to the victims with the $2,000 debit cards they were given too. The government's gonna be more concerned about rebuilding New Orleans than they will be about helping victims get back on their feet, look at what happened to the 9/11 victims, a lot of them didn't get the assistance they deserved right up to this day, peep that article I posted on this forum too a couple days ago! : President's Approval Rating Dips Below 40 By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago WASHINGTON - President Bush's job approval has dipped below 40 percent for the first time in the AP-Ipsos poll, reflecting widespread doubts about his handling of gasoline prices and the response to Hurricane Katrina. ADVERTISEMENT Nearly four years after Bush's job approval soared into the 80s after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Bush was at 39 percent job approval in an AP-Ipsos poll taken this week. That's the lowest since the the poll was started in December 2003. The public's view of the nation's direction has grown increasingly negative as well, with nearly two-thirds now saying the country is heading down the wrong track. "As a nation, we are pretty well stretched," said Barry Allen, a political independent from Reed City, Mich. "I approve of some of the things the president has done, and disapprove of others. Overall, I disapprove." Allen said he liked some of Bush's economic steps during his first term but has been dissatisfied with the president's economic moves in his second term, his Iraq policy and his handling of gasoline prices. Allen worries Hurricane Katrina has taken the wind out of an economy that was moving in the right direction. With gasoline racing past $3 a gallon, Bush's standing on dealing with those prices may be one of his biggest problems — seven in 10 said they disapprove. And just over half in the poll, 52 percent, said they disapprove of the president's handling of the hurricane. For Bill Kane of Kingsland, Ga., the government's slow response to the hurricane "was terrifying to see in our own country. It made you mad, because it made you think where's our money going?" More evidence of problems with the storm response surfaced Friday when the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced it would discontinue a 2-day-old program to issue debit cards worth to displaced families. The administration also dumped FEMA Director Michael Brown, who had come to symbolize the stumbling early days of the hurricane response, as commander of Katrina relief efforts. Brown once served as the judges and stewards commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association. "Bush puts people in jobs who don't know what they're doing," said Shirley Carignan, a retiree and a political independent from Weymouth, Mass. "I think he's picking friends for these jobs. My girlfriend raises Arabians. You know horses, so what? Horses and people are different things." The number of people who think the country is on the wrong track grew from 59 percent last month to 65 percent this month. Tumbling consumer confidence after Hurricane Katrina may be contributing to that sense of pessimism. The RBC CASH Index, based on polling by Ipsos, showed that consumer confidence sank in September to the lowest level since early March 2003 before the start of the Iraq war. Economic woes and a continuing war in Iraq have been complicated by the continuing hurricane recovery crisis. "A lot of Americans don't pay attention to their leaders on a day-to-day basis," said Robert Blendon, a public opinion analyst at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. "They measure presidents, governors and mayors on how they handle big events like a hurricane. This event is not over because the bodies are going to be discovered day by day." ___ On the Net: Ipsos: http://www.ap-ipsosresults.com

I found this long article posted by somebody on Public Enemy's board, it tells you what's really going on down there from victims who were there: These postings are from a listserve for artists of African descent. One was posted by the cousin of the founder of this listserve. Another is a transcription of Charmaine Neville (Aaron Neville's daughter). Stories like the ones below contest the racist portrayals that we are all reading about, hearing, and viewing in the media. With regards, Danielle ### i heard from my aunt last night that my cousin Denise > made it out of New Orleans; she's at her brother's in > Baton Rouge. from what she told me: > > her mother, a licensed practical nurse, was called in > to work on Sunday night at Memorial Hospital > (historically known as Baptist Hospital to those of us > from N.O.). Denise decided to stay with her mother, > her niece and grandniece (who is 2 years old); she > figured they'd be safe at the hospital. they went to > Baptist, and had to wait hours to be assigned a room > to sleep in; after they were finally assigned a room, > two white nurses suddenly arrived after the cut-off > time (time to be assigned a room), and Denise and her > family were booted out; their room was given up to the > new nurses. Denise was furious, and rather than stay > at Baptist, decided to walk home (several blocks away) > to ride out the storm at her mother's apartment. her > mother stayed at the hospital. > > she described it as the scariest time in her life. 3 > of the rooms in the apartment (there are only 4) caved > in. ceilings caved in, walls caved in. she huddled > under a mattress in the hall. she thought she would > die from either the storm or a heart attack. after the > storm passed, she went back to Baptist to seek shelter > (this was Monday). it was also scary at Baptist; the > electricity was out, they were running on generators, > there was no air conditioning. Tuesday the levees > broke, and water began rising. they moved patients > upstairs, saw boats pass by on what used to be > streets. they were told that they would be evacuated, > that buses were coming. then they were told they would > have to walk to the nearest intersection, Napoleon and > S. Claiborne, to await the buses. they waded out in > hip-deep water, only to stand at the intersection, on > the neutral ground (what y'all call the median) for 3 > 1/2 hours. the buses came and took them to the Ernest > Morial Convention Center. (yes, the convention center > you've all seen on TV.) > > Denise said she thought she was in hell. they were > there for 2 days, with no water, no food. no shelter. > Denise, her mother (63 years old), her niece (21 years > old), and 2-year-old grandniece. when they arrived, > there were already thousands of people there. they > were told that buses were coming. police drove by, > windows rolled up, thumbs up signs. national guard > trucks rolled by, completely empty, soldiers with guns > cocked and aimed at them. nobody stopped to drop off > water. a helicopter dropped a load of water, but all > the bottles exploded on impact due to the height of > the helicopter. > > the first day (Wednesday) 4 people died next to her. > the second day (Thursday) 6 people died next to her. > Denise told me the people around her all thought they > had been sent there to die. again, nobody stopped. the > only buses that came were full; they dropped off more > and more people, but nobody was being picked up and > taken away. they found out that those being dropped > off had been rescued from rooftops and attics; they > got off the buses delirious from lack of water and > food. completely dehydrated. the crowd tried to keep > them all in one area; Denise said the new arrivals had > mostly lost their minds. they had gone crazy. > > inside the convention center, the place was one huge > bathroom. in order to ****, you had to stand in other > people's ****. the floors were black and slick with > ****. most people stayed outside because the smell was > so bad. but outside wasn't much better: between the > heat, the humidity, the lack of water, the old and > very young dying from dehydration... and there was no > place to lay down, not even room on the sidewalk. they > slept outside Wednesday night, under an overpass. > > Denise said yes, there were young men with guns there. > but they organized the crowd. they went to Canal > Street and "looted," and brought back food and water > for the old people and the babies, because nobody had > eaten in days. when the police rolled down windows and > yelled out "the buses are coming," the young men with > guns organized the crowd in order: old people in > front, women and children next, men in the back. just > so that when the buses came, there would be priorities > of who got out first. > > Denise said the fights she saw between the young men > with guns were fist fights. she saw them put their > guns down and fight rather than shoot up the crowd. > but she said that there were a handful of people shot > in the convention center; their bodies were left > inside, along with other dead babies and old people. > > Denise said the people thought there were being sent > there to die. lots of people being dropped off, nobody > being picked up. cops passing by, speeding off. > national guard rolling by with guns aimed at them. and > yes, a few men shot at the police, because at a > certain point all the people thought the cops were > coming to hurt them, to kill them all. she saw a young > man who had stolen a car speed past, cops in pursuit; > he crashed the car, got out and ran, and the cops shot > him in the back. in front of the whole crowd. she saw > many groups of people decide that they were going to > walk across the bridge to the west bank, and those > same groups would return, saying that they were met at > the top of the bridge by armed police ordering them to > turn around, that they weren't allowed to leave. > > so they all believed they were sent there to die. > > Denise's niece found a pay phone, and kept trying to > call her mother's boyfriend in Baton Rouge, and > finally got through and told him where they were. the > boyfriend, and Denise's brother, drove down from Baton > Rouge and came and got them. they had to bribe a few > cops, and talk a few into letting them into the city > ("come on, man, my 2-year-old niece is at the > Convention Center!"), then they took back roads to get > to them. > > after arriving at my other cousin's apartment in Baton > Rouge, they saw the images on TV, and couldn't believe > how the media was portraying the people of New > Orleans. she kept repeating to me on the phone last > night: make sure you tell everybody that they left us > there to die. nobody came. those young men with guns > were protecting us. if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't > have had the little water and food they had found. > > that's Denise Moore's story. > > Lisa C. Moore **** Transcript: I was in my house when everything first started. I was in my house in the Bywater area in the Ninth Ward in New Orleans. When the hurricane came, it blew all of the left side of my house, the north side of my house completely off. The water was coming in my house in torrents. I had my neighbor, and an elderly man who is my neighbor, and myself in the house with our dogs and cats, and we were trying to stay out of the water but the water was coming in too fast. So we ended up having to leave the house. We left the house and we went up on the roof of a school. I took a crowbar and I burst the door open on the roof of the school to help people, to get them up on the roof of the school. Later on we found a flatboat, and we went around in the flatboat, getting people off the roof of their houses and bringing them to the school. We found all the food that we could, and we cooked and we fed people. But then, things started getting really bad. By the second day, the people that were there -- the people that we were feeding and everything -- we had no more food, no water, no nothing. And other people were coming into our neighborhood. We were watching the helicopters go across the bridge and airlift other people out, but they would hover over us and tell us "hi", and that would be all. They wouldn't drop us any food, any water, nothing. Alligators were eating people. They had all kind of stuff floating in the water. They had babies floating in the water. We had to walk over hundreds of bodies of dead people -- people that we tried to save from the hospices, from the hospitals, and from the old folks homes. I tried to get the police to help us, but I realized we rescued a lot of police officers in the flatboat from the Fifth District Police Station. The guy who was driving the boat, he rescued them and brought them to a lot of different places where they could be saved. We understood why the police couldn't help us, but we couldn't understand why the National Guard and them couldn't help us, because we kept seeing them. But they never would stop and help us. Finally, it just got to be too much. I just took all of the people that I could. I had two old women in wheelchairs with no legs. I rolled them from down there in that Ninth Ward to the French Quarter, and I went back and got more people. There were groups of us, there was about 24 of us, and we kept going back and forth rescuing whoever we could get and bringing them to the French Quarter since we heard that there were phones in the French Quarter and that there wasn't any water [flooding]. They were right, there was phones, but we couldn't get through. I found some police officers. I told them that a lot of us women had been raped down there. [her voice breaks] Men were coming in through the neighborhood, not the men that were helping us save people, but others. [begins crying] And they came and they started raping women, and raping them, and then they started killing. And I don't know who these people were, I'm not going to tell you I knew who they were, because I don't. But what I want people to understand is that if we were not left down there like the animals they were treating us like, all of those things wouldn't have happened. People are trying to say that we stayed in that city because we *wanted* to be rioting and we wanted to do this. We didn't have resources to get out; we had no way to leave. When they gave the evacuation order, if we could have left, we would have left. There are still thousands and thousands of people trapped in the homes down in the downtown area, in the Ninth Ward. And not just in my neighborhood, but in other neighborhoods in the Ninth Ward. There are people still trapped down there -- old people, young people, babies, pregnant women -- nobody's helping them. And I want people to realize that we did not stay in that city so we could steal and loot and commit crimes. A lot of those young men lost their minds because the helicopters would fly over us and wouldn't stop. We'd do SOS with the flashlights, we'd do everything. And it came to a point, it really did come to a point, when these young men were so frustrated that they did start shooting. They weren't trying to hit the helicopters, they figured that maybe they weren't seeing, maybe if they hear this gunfire, they will stop then. But that didn't help us, nothing like that helped us. Finally, I got to Canal Street with all of my people that I had saved from back there. There was a whole group of us. *I* -- I don't want them arresting nobody else -- *I* broke the window in a RTA bus. I never learned how to drive a bus in my life. I got in that bus, I loaded all of those people in wheelchairs and everything else into that bus, [begins sobbing] and we drove and we drove and we drove and millions of people were trying to get me to help them, to get on the bus with us [breaks down in sobs, Bishop Hughes comforts and praises her inaudibly] I don't know how God gave me the willpower to do... I just tried...gave me the willpower to do... I just tried... [segment ends] that's Charmaine Neville's story. I just left New Orleans a couple hours ago. I traveled from the apartment I was staying in by boat to a helicopter to a refugee camp. If anyone wants to examine the attitude of federal and state officials towards the victims of hurricane Katrina, I advise you to visit one of the refugee camps. In the refugee camp I just left, on the I-10 freeway near Causeway, thousands of people (at least 90% black and poor) stood and squatted in mud and trash behind metal barricades, under an unforgiving sun, with heavily armed soldiers standing guard over them. When a bus would come through, it would stop at a random spot, state police would open a gap in one of the barricades, and people would rush for the bus, with no information given about where the bus was going. Once inside (we were told) evacuees would be told where the bus was taking them - Baton Rouge, Houston, Arkansas, Dallas, or other locations. I was told that if you boarded a bus bound for Arkansas (for example), even people with family and a place to stay in Baton Rouge would not be allowed to get out of the bus as it passed through Baton Rouge. You had no choice but to go to the shelter in Arkansas. If you had people willing to come to New Orleans to pick you up, they could not come within 17 miles of the camp. I traveled throughout the camp and spoke to Red Cross workers, Salvation Army workers, National Guard, and state police, and although they were friendly, no one could give me any details on when buses would arrive, how many, where they would go to, or any other information. I spoke to the several teams of journalists nearby, and asked if any of them had been able to get any information from any federal or state officials on any of these questions, and all of them, from Australian tv to local Fox affiliates complained of an unorganized, non-communicative, mess. One cameraman told me "as someone who's been here in this camp for two days, the only information I can give you is this: get out by nightfall. You don't want to be here at night." There was also no visible attempt by any of those running the camp to set up any sort of transparent and consistent system, for instance a line to get on buses, a way to register contact information or find family members, special needs services for children and infirm, phone services, treatment for possible disease exposure, nor even a single trash can. To understand this tragedy, its important to look at New Orleans itself. For those who have not lived in New Orleans, you have missed a incredible, glorious, vital, city. A place with a culture and energy unlike anywhere else in the world. A 70% African-American city where resistance to white supremecy has supported a generous, subversive and unique culture of vivid beauty. From jazz, blues and hiphop, to secondlines, Mardi Gras Indians, Parades, Beads, Jazz Funerals, and red beans and rice on Monday nights, New Orleans is a place of art and music and dance and sexuality and liberation unlike anywhere else in the world. It is a city of kindness and hospitality, where walking down the block can take two hours because you stop and talk to someone on every porch, and where a community pulls together when someone is in need. It is a city of extended families and social networks filling the gaps left by city, state and federal goverments that have abdicated their responsibilty for the public welfare. It is a city where someone you walk past on the street not only asks how you are, they wait for an answer. It is also a city of exploitation and segregation and fear. The city of New Orleans has a population of just over 500,000 and was expecting 300 murders this year, most of them centered on just a few, overwhelmingly black, neighborhoods. Police have been quoted as saying that they don't need to search out the perpetrators, because usually a few days after a shooting, the attacker is shot in revenge. There is an atmosphere of intense hostility and distrust between much of Black New Orleans and the N.O. Police Department. In recent months, officers have been accused of everything from drug running to corruption to theft. In seperate incidents, two New Orleans police officers were recently charged with rape (while in uniform), and there have been several high profile police killings of unarmed youth, including the murder of Jenard Thomas, which has inspired ongoing weekly protests for several months. The city has a 40% illiteracy rate, and over 50% of black ninth graders will not graduate in four years. Louisiana spends on average $4,724 per child's education and ranks 48th in the country for lowest teacher salaries. The equivalent of more than two classrooms of young people drop out of Louisiana schools every day and about 50,000 students are absentfrom school on any given day. Far too many young black men from New Orleans end up enslaved in Angola Prison, a former slave plantation where inmates still do manual farm labor, and over 90% of inmates eventually die in the prison. It is a city where industry has left, and most remaining jobs are are low-paying, transient, insecure jobs in the service economy. Race has always been the undercurrent of Louisiana politics. This disaster is one that was constructed out of racism, neglect and incompetence. Hurricane Katrina was the inevitable spark igniting the gasoline of cruelty and corruption. From the neighborhoods left most at risk, to the treatment of the refugees to the the media portayal of the victims, this disaster is shaped by race. Louisiana politics is famously corrupt, but with the tragedies of this week our political leaders have defined a new level of incompetence. As hurricane Katrina approached, our Governor urged us to "Pray the hurricane down" to a level two. Trapped in a building two days after the hurricane, we tuned our battery-operated radio into local radio and tv stations, hoping for vital news, and were told that our governor had called for a day of prayer. As rumors and panic began to rule, they was no source of solid dependable information. Tuesday night, politicians and reporters said the water level would rise another 12 feet - instead it stabilized. Rumors spread like wildfire, and the politicians and media only made it worse. While the rich escaped New Orleans, those with nowhere to go and no way to get there were left behind. Adding salt to the wound, the local and national media have spent the last week demonizing those left behind. As someone that loves New Orleans and the people in it, this is the part of this tragedy that hurts me the most, and it hurts me deeply. No sane person should classify someone who takes food from indefinitely closed stores in a desperate, starving city as a "looter," but thats just what the media did over and over again. Sherrifs and politicians talked of having troops protect stores instead of perform rescue operations. Images of New Orleans' hurricane-ravaged population were transformed into black, out-of-control, criminals. As if taking a stereo from a store that will clearly be insured against loss is a greater crime than the governmental neglect and incompetence that did billions of dollars of damage and destroyed a city. This media focus is a tactic, just as the eighties focus on "welfare queens" and "super- predators" obscured the simultaneous and much larger crimes of the Savings and Loan scams and mass layoffs, the hyper-exploited people of New Orleans are being used as a scapegoat to cover up much larger crimes. City, state and national politicians are the real criminals here. Since at least the mid-1800s, its been widely known the danger faced by flooding to New Orleans. The flood of 1927, which, like this week's events, was more about politics and racism than any kind of natural disaster, illustrated exactly the danger faced. Yet government officials have consistently refused to spend the money to protect this poor, overwhelmingly black, city. While FEMA and others warned of the urgent impending danger to New Orleans and put forward proposals for funding to reinforce and protect the city, the Bush administration, in every year since 2001, has cut or refused to fund New Orleans flood control, and ignored scientists warnings of increased hurricanes as a result of global warming. And, as the dangers rose with the floodlines, the lack of coordinated response dramatized vividly the callous disregard of our elected leaders. The aftermath from the 1927 flood helped shape the elections of both a US President and a Governor, and ushered in the southern populist politics of Huey Long. In the coming months, billions of dollars will likely flood into New Orleans. This money can either be spent to usher in a "New Deal" for the city, with public investment, creation of stable union jobs, new schools, cultural programs and housing restoration, or the city can be "rebuilt and revitalized" to a shell of its former self, with newer hotels, more casinos, and with chain stores and theme parks replacing the former neighborhoods, cultural centers and corner jazz clubs. Long before Katrina, New Orleans was hit by a hurricane of poverty, racism, disinvestment, de-industrialization and corruption. Simply the damage from this pre-Katrina hurricane will take billions to repair. Now that the money is flowing in, and the world's eyes are focused on Katrina, its vital that progressive-minded people take this opportunity to fight for a rebuilding with justice. New Orleans is a special place, and we need to fight for its rebirth.

"Leading blacks label Bush a disaster http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/344397p-293973c.html Katrina's deluge may be draining, but the tide of African-American resentment toward President Bush seems higher than ever. "Bush is a travesty," Magic Johnson told us yesterday at the Rev. Al Sharpton's Dream Keepers Luncheon in Beverly Hills. "The White House let us all down - both blacks and whites." "Hotel Rwanda" star Don Cheadle admitted that "the dogs are piling on the President." But, the Oscar nominee added, "I'm cool with it. I'm one more on the dog pile. How Bush handled this was an embarrassment." "Bush sat there and fiddled in Crawford while New Orleans drowned," Sharpton said. "If someone had told him that it was heading to West Palm Beach, Fla., he would have stopped everything." Def Jam chief Jay-Z told us yesterday he "100% supported" his hitmaker Kanye West, who shocked NBC execs Friday when he declared on a network telethon: "George Bush doesn't care about black people." "When you're the commander in chief, you're responsible," Jay said from London, where he picked up British GQ's International Man of the Year Award (while denying reports that he just slipped an engagement ring on Beyoncé's finger). "Maybe it's the mayor or the governor to blame. But when you are the boss, it comes down on you." Sean Combs, who flew to New Orleans yesterday, barely made it onto the same NBC broadcast. Producers, who didn't expect him, were making room in their lineup just as Kanye walked offstage. Hearing his Bush blast, Diddy told the fellow rapper: "Now they're definitely not going to let me go out there!" P.S. The Neville Brothers, Elton John, Lenny Kravitz, Bette Midler and Rod Stewart will headline a New Orleans benefit concert at Madison Square Garden Sept. 20. They'll be joined by Big Easy legend Fats Domino, who was rescued from his home by boat." Jay-Z makes a great point in there, sure the mayor or governor of New Orleans could be blamed some but Bush is supposed to be the biggest leader of them all so he deserves most of the blame.

"You're my heart, you're my soul You got so much control My love runs deeper than the ocean and sea But if you sail away, you take the center piece of me"-Blackstreet "Don't Leave Me"

Happy B-Day! :yeah: :yeah: :yeah:

"Feet planted on deep black firmament Bow -- in the presence of who lead rap permanent Like a lion rap rips a chunk of kids You stunk, cause mortals ain't **** to conquer Somebody said new pharoahes have appeared How when everything I wore ten years ago you wear now? I coulda murder heard a word out quick Rick stomp it kid Hung to it, you complete bum to Rick"-Slick Rick "I Own America"

Lil' Kim doesn't even do many good verses, let alone many good songs, so how could she all of a sudden do a classic album? How many people did she sleep with to write songs for her? :lolsign: The verse that Jean Grae did on "Black Girl Pain" is better than Lil' Kim's whole career! I don't think hell has frozen over yet! :shrug:

Well I guess they only wanna attract 12 year olds to watch them!

I wonder if "Party Starter"'s too smart for BET? It still ain't on the list to be on 106 & Park when it's been 2 days already since they premiered it on there, they usually put 50 Cent videos on the list for you to vote the minute it gets premiered.

If "Lost and Found" goes platinum, he'll probably say that he started Will's career, it wouldn't surprise me if he did say that 'cause of all the stupid things he says, Kanye should finish 50 off, he's worked hard to get where he's at, 50 had nothin' to do with it. :mad:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With Little Brother's The Minstrel Show hitting stores next week, SOHH.com has heard BET is refusing to air the album's first video, "Lovin' It" because it is "too intelligent for the BET audience." The video begins with a delivery truck dropping boxes labeled "gangsta," "backpackers," "earthy" and "icy" onto a street. The rest of the clip mostly sees LB and Joe Scudda, who is also featured on the song, performing in front of a capacity crowd. The clip also pokes fun at the Hip-Hop subgenres by depicting overly exaggerated backpackers and gangtas characters in the audience. "Lovin' It" also jokingly features typical scenes with Big Pooh sitting next to champagne-sipping models in the venue's VIP section while LB's entourage pop bottles. The video concludes with a car running through the boxes dropped on the street earlier. The statement of the video being "too intelligent for the BET audiece" was discussed recently on Columbia University's college radio station, 89.9 hosted by Timmhotep Aku. Aku says this statement was made verbatim by the program director from BET to one of the Atlantic records label reps. SOHH.com contacted several officials at BET, including their vice president Stephen Hill, their program director, and publicist, Michael Llewellen who offered this response. "It's not true, not in that context. BET reserves the right to show or not to show music videos of any type based on the network's own standards and decision-making processes," Llewellyn told SOHH.com. When questioned further as to whether the words "too intelligent for the BET audience" was used, Llewellen did not respond. Atlantic Records has refused to comment. The LB incident doesn't mark the first time BET has allegedly banned underground artists from its video rotation. In December 2004, SOHH.com reported that BET snubbed De La Soul's "Shopping Bags" video and The Beatnuts' "Find Us (In the Back of the Club)" clip featuring Akon. In a meeting with BET heads, De La reportedly said BET told them they "weren't relevant to the BET audience" while The Beatnuts were told that "BET doesn't break new artists." The Beatnuts had previously garnered heavy rotation for videos like "Off The Books" from 1997's Stone Crazy, "Watch Out Now" from 1999's A Musical Massacre and "No Escapin This" off 2001's Take It or Squeeze It. The network has also been under fire from the black community for cutting its news coverage to make room for more videos in the past few years. Recently, the community has been frustrated with BET for its failure to cover the Hurricane Katrina's crisis. Little Brother's The Minstrel Show featuring "Lovin' It" hits stores September 13th. http://www.sohh.com/images/icons/end_story.gif

Well the only thing I know about you 50 is that your whole career is based on being a 2Pac wannabe and putting out crappy music ever since you were shot 9 times and you talk about every rapper like you're a rap god that started it all, wait till you runs your mouth about KRS, Rakim, FP, or LL, your career will be over. :paperbag: I'm surprised he hasn't dissed Chuck D yet, it's obvious that he ain't computer literate or maybe since he only disses famous people out on the charts now like Eminem does, 'cause Chuck D has written quite a few things criticising 50 Cent on publicenemy.com's terrordomes.

I actually tried watching TRL the past few days to see if they would debut it but it was like sitting through nothing! :mad:

I think 50 Cent is scared that Kanye might outsell him! :gettinjiggywitit: :lolsign: :stickpoke:

They gotta re-release all the JJFP albums, especially the rare "Rock The House", when I get some money up I'm gonna get all the Run-Dmc albums remastered, I got "Raising Hell" and "Tougher Than Leather" but I'll probably rebuy them again too since they're collectors items from the greatest rap group ever.

Rev. Run's album comes out October 18th, I saw it listed over on amazon.com to release that date.

Hey I forgot to mention Da Brat and Left Eye too, they'd be in the same category as Foxy Brown and Eve, let's not sleep on Roxanee Chante either from the legendary Juice Crew, Jean Grae released an album through okayplayer last fall I think and was on the song "Black Girl Pain" with Talib Kweli on "The Beautiful Struggle", that's how I got interested in her.

So what's everyone's opinion on this? "Sept. 11 Recovery Loans Loosely Managed By DIRK LAMMERS and FRANK BASS Associated Press Writers The government's $5 billion effort to help small businesses recover from the Sept. 11 attacks was so loosely managed that it gave low-interest loans to companies that didn't need terrorism relief - or even know they were getting it, The Associated Press has found. And while some at New York's Ground Zero couldn't get assistance they desperately sought, companies far removed from the devastation - a South Dakota country radio station, a Virgin Islands perfume shop, a Utah dog boutique and more than 100 Dunkin' Donuts and Subway sandwich shops - had no problem winning the government-guaranteed loans. Dentists and chiropractors in numerous cities, as well as an Oregon winery that sold trendy pinot noir to New York City restaurants also got assistance. "That's scary. Nine-11 had nothing to do with this," said James Munsey, a Virginia entrepreneur who described himself as "beyond shocked" to learn his nearly $1 million loan to buy a special events company in Richmond was drawn from the Sept. 11 program. "It would have been inappropriate for me to take this kind of loan," he said, noting that the company he bought suffered no ill effects from Sept. 11. Arvind "Andy" Patel, 50, said he used his $350,000 loan in fall 2002 to remodel his Dunkin' Donuts shop in western New York state and never knew it was drawn through the Sept. 11 program. "Not at all," Patel answered, when asked whether his business had been hurt by the attacks. Government officials said they believe banks assigned some loans to the terror relief program without telling borrowers. Neither the government nor its participating banks said they could provide figures on how many businesses got loans that way. But AP's nationwide investigation located businesses in dozens of states who said they did not know their loans were drawn from the Sept. 11 programs, suggesting at least hundreds of millions of dollars went to unwitting recipients. The Small Business Administration, which administered the two programs that doled out Sept. 11 recovery loans, said it first learned of the problems through AP's review and was weighing whether an investigation was needed. But officials also acknowledged they intended to spread the post-Sept. 11 aid broadly because so many unexpected industries were hurt. "We started seeing business (needing help) in areas you wouldn't think of - tourism, crop dusting, trade and transportation. ... So there were a lot of examples you wouldn't think of, at first blush," SBA Administrator Hector Barreto told AP. In all, the government provided, approved or guaranteed nearly $4.9 billion in loans, and took credit for saving 20,000 jobs. That would put the average cost of saving a job at about a quarter million dollars each. Of the 19,000 loans approved by the two programs, fewer than 11 percent went to companies in New York City and Washington, according to an AP computer analysis of loan records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. "I had nothing here," said Shirla Yam, who runs a clothing store in the former shadows of the twin towers that got a $20,000 grant from a local advocacy group but no federal aid after Sept. 11. "I don't know if I'll be here next month." Under one of the programs, SBA lent money directly to companies that provided detailed statements on how they were hurt. The other program provided incentives - and guaranteed loans from default - so banks could lend money to companies they determined were hurt by the post-Sept. 11 economic downturn. Most loans were well below market rates - as low as 4 percent, documents show. SBA officials acknowledged the second program, the Supplementary Terrorism Activity Relief (STAR), left banks on an honor system to determine worthy loan recipients. "One lender could have been really strict and specific about the borrower providing the documentation to prove that they were affected by the Sept. 11 attacks, and another banker may not have, or may have had ulterior motives for approving loans," said SBA spokeswoman Carol Chastang. SBA documents obtained by AP show banks had a strong incentive to approve as many loans as possible from the terror program. The banks profited from the interest while incurring little risk because the government guaranteed 75 percent to 85 percent of each loan. And the annual fee the lenders paid to SBA to get the government guarantee was slashed from 0.5 percent to 0.25 percent - meaning lenders saved an additional $5,000 a year for every $2 million they loaned under STAR. "There was definitely an advantage to the lender to get that reduced fee," said Christopher Chavez, an SBA official in Colorado. He said he suspects lenders might not always have talked to businesses about damage from Sept. 11 before moving loans into STAR. While SBA officials expressed surprise at AP's findings, banking officials said the agency encouraged the industry to use the post-Sept. 11 programs liberally, especially when its normal guaranteed lending program was hit by steep budget cuts in 2002. "They had personnel at our conference stand up and say if you cannot find a reason to move the loan over to the STAR program, contact us and we'll help you find a reason to move it over," recalled Tony Wilkinson, president of the National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders. Major lenders like Wachovia and Wells Fargo declined to say how many loans they shifted into the terror relief program, saying only that they followed the law. Wells Fargo, the nation's second largest SBA lender, said the STAR program enabled lenders "to provide funds to new and mature businesses impacted by 9/11" and the bank "continues to strictly adhere to SBA operational standards for all SBA loan originations." Many loans went to local outlets of some of America's most famous and lucrative companies. For instance, 55 Dunkin' Donuts shops across the country, 14 Quiznos sandwich shops and 52 Subway sandwich shops got loans. Fourteen Dairy Queens - part of the ice cream franchise partly owned by Wall Street billionaire Warren Buffett - won more than $5 million in loans. "I just applied for the loan at the bank. I had no idea where the funds came from," said Tom Mayl, who got two SBA Sept. 11 loans totaling more than $800,000 to open a Subway shop in suburban Dayton, Ohio, and a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in Sidney, Ohio. "It doesn't seem right, just on the surface, but I really don't know the details," Mayl said. Don Robinson said he too didn't need or ask for terrorism relief when he got a $765,000 government-backed loan in 2003 - drawn without his knowledge from the Sept. 11 program - to start a motorcycle shop in Brigham City, Utah. "Actually, the motorcycle industry grew after 9/11," Robinson said. "People just took their money out of the stock market to buy toys." Dentists and chiropractors also were frequent, but unwitting, beneficiaries. "They weren't putting their health second to anything else," chiropractor Colby Shores said of his patients in the suburbs of Rochester, N.Y. He was unaware his $87,000 loan with a 4 percent interest rate came from the terror relief program. The loan patterns uncovered by AP left some seething in the neighborhoods directly scarred by Sept. 11. "You have to take it back and give it to us. Even now, I could use it," said Mike Yagudayev, who said the SBA would only provide him $20,000 of a $70,000 loan he requested to rebuild his hair salon flattened by the collapse of World Trade Center towers in New York. "I said, `You know what, take it back. Twenty thousand is like an insult,'" he recalled. Thousands of businesses far from the devastation had no trouble getting SBA loans, simply submitting short applications that linked their slow business to the widespread economic fallout caused by Sept. 11. For instance: _Karl Grimmelmann, general manager of KBFS-AM "Hit Kickin' Country" in Belle Fourche, S.D., borrowed $135,000 from SBA's disaster program after learning about it from a news release. He said his station was forced to pay more money to cover national news and also lost advertisers. "Everybody started holding onto their money, plain and simple," he said. _Margie Olson, co-owner of the Torii Mor Winery in McMinnville, Ore., said her business needed a $125,000 loan because it couldn't sell high-end pinot noir to Manhattan restaurants that had closed. "Everyone started hitting the heavy stuff," Olson said, laughing. _Melva Kravitz, co-owner of the Little Dogs Resort & Salon in Salt Lake City that offers boarding and grooming services for small dogs, said people stopped taking vacations and boarding their pets after Sept. 11, requiring her $50,000 loan. "It was awful," she said. "You just couldn't go on." _Christine Hilty, co-owner of Violettes Boutique on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, said the perfume shop lost 60 percent of its business overnight as tourism stopped. She got a $169,500 loan from SBA. "Would we have closed our doors? It was close," she said. "Everyone was afraid to get on a plane. Tourism was totally halted." Though the loan programs have ended, the government is inheriting a residual burden. Already, taxpayers have been forced to cover about 600 defaulted disaster loans - some approaching $1 million each - from companies that went bankrupt or closed. More defaults are expected. Jim Hammersley, who runs the SBA's collection arm, said many applicants asked for too much or too little money to keep their businesses afloat. "The folks that were dealing with the aftermath of 9/11 didn't have anything that certain to try and gauge whether they needed money or how much they needed," he said. ___ AP Writers Paul Foy in Utah, Amy Westfeldt and Ben Dobbins in New York, Steve Paulsen in Colorado, Carrie Spencer in Ohio and Stephanie Stoughton in Virginia contributed to this story. On the Net: SBA: http://www.sba.gov

I thought that was an embarassment that Eminem won an Oscar for "Lose Yourself", sure it's the only good song he's made in recent years(actually more interesting than the movie, lol) but that wasn't Oscar worthy material, that's disrespectful for anyone that's ever won one, I mean if they have that win "Men In Black" and "Wild Wild West" shoulda won Oscars! :mad: