As Eddie once sang… I’m “Loving You The Second Time Around”… or third… or fourth…
It’s only right that the day I stumbled across the sample to AZ’s “I’m Back” lines up with my return to the Do Better Movement… I know we’ve gone through this before… I run off to chase some dreams… and leave The Movement behind… However, it should be noted that the spirit of the Movement has never left… with the advent of other social sites it’s taken new forms…
For instance, you can catch The Movement over on Tumblr at landofonustee.tumblr.com …you can check out my rants or tweets as they’re called at @KidChasesDreams (warning… I rarely hold anything back over there…) …and as always… you can be up-to-date with the latest on.us.tees info at @onustees …and let’s not forget The Movement on twitter… here: @DoBetterMvmt
Fortunately, each year we declare our resolutions… and one of my top ones was to “Do Better. Move with the Movement.”
So… with that being said… let’s get to it…
Doing It Right!!!
- (Hand me my Late Pass) Mississippi Rapper, Big K.R.I.T., revamps a long forgotten trend in Hip Hop… That trend is and once was known as “good ole southern rap”… Formerly, the purveyors of this sub-genre were OutKast, UGK, & Little Brother… However, over the past couple of years… most of the music pumping out the South made you wonder (or worry) about the education climate of that region… Yet, with 19 self-produced tracks Big K.R.I.T. puts all fears to rest with “K.R.I.T Wuz Here”… Right off the 1st song “Return of 4va”, I was transported back 1994 burning up my tape of Kast’s Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik… It’s not just the Soul-heavy beats that get you… the lyrics are Do Better approved as well… most have themes of trying to do better in an environment that makes it quite difficult to do so… evident on the Marvin Gaye “Distant Lover” sampled “They Got Us” with hook “When this storm gon’ settle, I can’t hurt forever, how can I do better now… Break my back for nothing, lock me up for strugglin’, only God can judge me now…” …truths like “it’s hard to do be broke and do better…” …I strongly urge you to go out and support this young man… It took me a few months to finally load up the album sitting on my desktop because of his name alone… but after many friends, whose ears I trust, repeatedly told me I was missing out… I booted the album up and… they were right. Get on the Big K.R.I.T. train now before it’s overbooked…
…you’re also gonna need this…
…don’t worry, we’re all getting them.
DOING IT WRONG!!!
- Club promoters take sh!t a little too far trying to get patrons… Now, I know as a race we, the Black people, have ALWAYS had issues with light skin, fair skin, dark skin debates… But to promote parties with “Light Skin” vs. “Dark Skin” battles is just so… slavish… Like truly, what does the winner get… 3 days off the fields and a chance to sip lemonade on the porch? and does the loser have to serve time breastfeeding massa chilluns?!? Well, whatever is the outcome, I hope this fad ends soon…
…it looks like they even airbrushed some of the Cocoa Loveliness off of “Dark Skin”…
- Skin color shame becomes a pandemic!!! That’s right… just after you found out what time the “Light Skin vs. Dark Skin” party started… Reggae artist Vybz Kartel decides to up the ante and bleach his skin… Fortunately, I don’t know much about is music… and certainly won’t be checking for GhostMan’s work anytime soon… So, whether he decides to turn yellow, purple or blue makes no difference to me…
LAWDAMERCY!
- Old Coca-Cola R&B artist… makes it all too easy… If you’re familiar with #BlackTwitter… then by now you’ve run across a retweet or trending topic featuring the wizzdumb* of Sir Tyrese Gibson… give him 24 hours and his timeline is certain to reward you with absurd gems… This time he interprets his tweets through art with the painting “What If”… The painting illustrates Malcolm X baptizing Tupac Shakur… let me repeat… the painting illustrates Malcolm X BAPTIZING Tupac Shakur… (no Boardwalk Empire-o) …I would relish the chance to go-in on this… but Luvvie @ www.awesomelyluvvie.com has done a terrific job doing so…
TUG LAGE!!! Wait… What!?!
- The Game returns… Negroes rejoice… yet, no one wants to suggest that they’ve might have jumped the shark 5 minutes into the 2nd episodes!?! …first… let me be honest… I’m not a fan of the show… didn’t care for it when it was on the Public Negro Channel… and damn sure didn’t clamor for it to return on the Cable Negro Channel… I may have seen 2-3 full episodes during it’s run… So, this rant comes from a realm of hate… but dig… I was chillaxing Tuesday evening surfing on Hulu catching up on Family Guy when The Game pops on… and in the very 1st scene (well, 1st that I saw…) three of the main ladies on the show are taking off their tops!!! What the phuck!?! Now, I’m not what the phucking* them taking the tops off… No ma’am… Go right ahead… I just didn’t get WHY they did it… but I had to see what would come of this… therefore, I sat and watched the rest of the show assuming at some point they were going to address them getting “Girls Gone Wild” just to discuss somebody’s drama… I watched Derwin find out the baby is his… I saw the Jason Taylor looking dude throw his ex-teammates under the bus on-air… I observed Derwin punch a hole in the wall… again… I even got a chance to mute that dumb ass “Dips & Pitts” or vice versa song… and yet, with all of that… no one acknowledged that these women showed dem’ yammies… Well, not really… they were visually obstructed and I’m quite sure they actually had on pasties… by my imagination said “oh my damn, they bout to get butt ass naked…” and for what??? No one knows… or cares to write it in the story… However, I’ll be tuning next time to see if they repeat the peep show… but I’m only giving them until the 1st quarter.
Take them out to Basic Cable… & they might just give you a show second time around…
And there you have it… the 1st Do Better Thursday post of 2011… Thanks for reading and bear with me… Still, getting the rhythm back… I thought I had more Doing It Right topics… but Big K.R.I.T. can hold it down for this week…
See you all next week (hopefully)…
As always…
Thanks for doing better…
– dre’ of onustees.com
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6xNkt5A_wo]
Its the return of 4eva HO!! Children of the World = Dat Piff…I fully agree with you on The LAME…didn't realize anyone was quietly clamoring for this show until it reached fever pitch on the net…then quick went away like a sugar rush…hadn't see the promoter flyer…wowsers…and lastly tyrese…good lord a little bit of knowledge and I do mean I little bit can be such a dangerous thing…also can I get an honorable mention for Jay-Z's book…thought it might be a load of crap but it is actually good and give some thoughtful insight/opinion/perspective to hip hop as an artform/culture in a way that doesn't elicit eye rolls (see KRS)…anyway sorry to make the comment so long…just wanted to get out everything I was thinking before I forgot it…great job
lol… thanks for checking it out fam… I have Decoded… but haven't gotten to it yet… I'm sure it will be added to the Movement once I do……don't forget to submit Levi's op… whenever the mood strikes you…thanks again!
Just catching up on what I've missed from your site so far. I didn't even know what the hell The Game was until Facebook statuses turned into closed captioning for the show. I Tivo'd it. Shortly after pressing "Play" I saw half of Sister Sister on the screen and "BET" in the bottom corner. DELETE! I don't know what it's about and don't care. Leviticus is right…Jay-Z's book was friggin awesome.