The Last Holiday

About 7 months ago, the civil rights, Hip Hop and music communities lost a prominent figure: Gil Scott-Heron. On May 27, 2011 we heard the news of this great man's passing, but today we continuously celebrate his life and his legacy. From the 2011 BET Awards Tribute where Queen Latifah recites his famous poem, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" until now.

[Charged.fm Article on BET 2011 Memorial Tribute]

Billboard.biz just recently reported that the Gil Scott-Heron memoir will be released on January 16, 2012. The memoir will be titled "The Last Holiday", a title with metaphorical significance. The memoir is set to be released on the same day our country celebrates and observes Dr. King; the same man in whom Gil Scott-Heron fought for to make this day a national holiday during his year long tour with the great, Stevie Wonder.

Gil Scott-Heron was a revolutionary artist and reigned as the "Godfather of Rap". Beyond the Lyrics anticipates this memoir as it recounts and narrates the story/life of a man who used his music to shake up things on a political and social level. [Read: Beyond the Lyrics "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" article]

The Dream

Common blesses his fans with the opportunity to hear his new album The Dreamer, The Believer in its entirety through a YouTube stream. After taking a listen, it's safe to say that No I.D. and Common creates true perfection! Common's prolific, positive Hip Hop rhymes over No I.D.'s sick beats establishes a timeless, classic album.

The album begins with the track, "The Dreamer", and over the head bopping beat you hear Common smoothly say, "Maybe I'm a hopeless Hip Hop romantic" laying the foundation for his entire album. In a video Common talks to Rap-Up TV saying that the album is a product of what he does best: Hip Hop. Both Common and No I.D. grew up and are deeply rooted in Hip Hop and together they created an album with a message of introspection for the masses; a message that you don't want to overlook.

Throughout the 12-track album, Common brings a message of the "power of the dream" and how fulfilling your dream provides hope for our community. Common continues to set the stage for the album as he concludes the first track with the voice of Maya Angelou, "If you desire a bright tomorrow, you must build a brighter dream... We are here alive today because our ancestors dared to dream..."

The Dreamer. The Believer Track Listing:
1. The Dreamer
2. Ghetto Dreams ft. Nas
3. Blue Sky
4. So Sweet
5. Gold
6. Lovin I Lost
7. Raw (How You Like It)
8. Cloth
9. Celebrate
10. Windows
11. The Believer
12. Pops Belief

Queen Latifah Covers Essence Magazine

The January edition of Essence has rolled around and mogul, Queen Latifah has graced the cover. Jeannine Amber, senior writer at Essence, wrote a profound piece on the woman behind Queen Latifah, Dana Owens, and how she reached royal stardom.

Many of us know Queen Latifah as the bold woman who addressed what it meant to be called out of your name in "U-N-I-T-Y" or the female who started one of Hip Hop's first management companies, Flavor Unit Management. Whatever you know Queen Latifah as, know that her prolific journey can be attributed to her upbringing and her family. In the Essence article, Jeannine touches on Latifah's mother's devotion to the arts, her older brother's impact and her father's courage - all factors that played an essential role in the molding of the singer, actress, rapper, fashion designer and spokesperson that we know of.


Professor and Hip Hop Scholar, Cheryl Keyes breaks down the female black identity within Hip Hop culture in her essay, "Empowering Self, Making Choices, Creating Spaces: Black Female Identity via Rap Music Performance". Queen Latifah has successfully embody the 'Queen Mother' attribute that Keyes discusses in the essay. Although, Queen Latifah denotes this motherly image by always re-affirming herself as a down-to-earth female, it is without a doubt that Queen Latifah holds a regal, self-assured demeanor while making strides to build the community. The very same attributes of a 'Queen Mother'.

Queen Latifah said, "From the time I decided to become a rapper and get a record deal and have a management company, there have been doubters, people who didn't get it. If we had listened to them, we never would've tried half the things we did. But we didn't listen, so here we are 20 years later. You believe in yourself and put your mind and your soul into it. I've been around that kind of fearlessness all my life". Dana 'Queen Latifah' Owens ambitiously set forth on a path to greatness and didn't allow the naysayers to block her. She has contributed much to rap music and the female MC persona, fought social norms to stand as a symbol of beauty, won several awards and stands as a mogul and Queen in her own right.

Check out behind the scene footage of Queen Latifah's photo shoot on Essence.com.

Look at this early 1990s video of "U-N-I-T-Y":

"We're NOT Accepting That Over Here"

Over and over again, Hip Hop scholars and professors have heard: "there is no education surrounding Hip Hop", "rap lyrics are misogynistic and barbaric, so what can you possible learn from such a course", "so what do you really teach". But Mark Anthony Neal, David J. Leonard and James Braxton Peterson eloquently said We're NOT Accepting That Over Here with their Wednesday post in regards to the critiques of Dr. Dyson teaching a course on Jay Z at Georgetown University.

"Politics as Usual: Decoding the Attacks on Liberal Education" is not a post that just attacks what critiques have been saying, but it lets you into the mind of scholars, educators, professors and visionaries who boldly stand by Hip Hop and its way to reach, teach and educate. Dr. Dyson's course has received so much praise and at the same time critiques as to what really is the purpose of the course. Well let's really look into it...

You remember, "Ignorant S***" off of Jay Z's American Gangster album? No, Jay Z was not just spitting explicit words for the heck of it. Instead, he portrayed how so many wanted to hear degradation and ignorance from his lips because it only seemed right.

I make "Big Pimpin" or "Give It 2 Me", one of those... 

Ya'll hail me as the greatest writer of the 21st Century
I make some thought-provoking s***
Ya'll question whether he falling off
I'ma really confuse ya'll on this one
Follow.... 

"Ignorant S***" was Jay Z's way of showing that there's more to the culture than the misogynistic lyrics so many of us are accustom to hearing. How about "Song Cry"? Jay Z provided millions of Hip Hop "heads" with a song as a coping mechanism for relationships gone wrong. Recently, a Hip Hop ed chat occurred via Twitter regarding the power of Hip Hop in discussing the taboo subject of mental health (coping, loss, stress, dysfunctional families, suicidal thoughts, etc.) in our community. "Song Cry" is one of Jay Z's many platforms about mental health - along with "December 4", "New Day"... the list goes on.

 Jay Z is just one rapper out of many where you can dismantle the lyrics, have an entire lecture around, build research papers/theses on and engage in magniloquent dialogue towards change. It's time that Hip Hop is more embraced as a vital part of liberal education, instead of being black listed. Thank you Mark Anthony Neal, David J. Leonard and James Braxton Peterson for always saying We're NOT Accepting That Over Here.

Higher Learning

"We are the next generation of hip-hop. We are doing this for the culture that gave us everything. SHHO is higher learning through hip-hop." These three sentences give you the essence of the Student Hip Hop Organization (SHHO) that was birthed at Virginia Commonwealth University and expanded to seven other chapters at surrounding collegiate campuses. In 2006, SHHO surfaced at VCU and then traveled down the road to the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia in 2007. And this is how Blair Ebony Smith became the only female co-founder in this ever-evolving organization.

Blair Ebony Smith obtained her Bachelors of Science in Sociology with a minor in Community Studies from the College of William & Mary in May 2011. She is currently pursuing her PhD at Syracuse University. Beyond the Lyrics had the opportunity to interview this ambitious scholar and visionary. 

Blair started the SHHO chapter at her school as a freshman along with two male students, Bobak Kasrai and Lamar Shambley. SHHO took off and it was a whirlwind for a freshman still getting adjusted to a new life, but Blair assiduously pushed forward. When asked how she kept up, Blair bolded stated, “I just did me”. Doing her allowed her to flourish and she remained the only female president up until 2010. Blair diligently worked within a small black community to create a stir at William & Mary, and it worked. Two years after SHHO was founded a member, Nolan Chao, started the “B-boy Club”. William & Mary and the George Mason University chapters are currently the only two chapters with female presidents, but Blair still stands as the only female co-founder and it was only right to delve into the bold claims of the female MC in Hip Hop being non-existent today.

“It depends who you are, who you listen to and who you know about in regards to Hip Hop”. This was Blair’s response to the thought of the ‘lack of female MC figure’. For Blair, it was nothing more or nothing less. She said she has had numerous conversations and interviews with underground female MCs and majority of them were not concerned with such claims. “Just because you’re not making it in the mainstream realm, doesn’t mean you’re not making it”. I couldn’t agree more. Hip Hop is more than what mainstream produces and it embodies what individuals, like Blair, contribute. 

 

“I don’t like when people call it a ‘game’. Lately, I’ve been thinking critically about word usage and it just sounds like we’re playing with it. That words sounds like a competition and Hip Hop is more than that to me”. In one word, Blair describes Hip Hop as love. This love that the culture represents and the love she has for it allows her to continue to use her achievements and accolades to build the Hip Hop community. Blair Ebony Smith is taking this love and finding ways to integrate it in academia. Remember, "We are the next generation of hip-hop. We are doing this for the culture that gave us everything. SHHO is higher learning through hip-hop."

For more information on the Student Hip Hop Organization, click here.

Julie Greenwald

Julie Greenwald, Chairman/COO of The Atlantic Records Group stands as number 1 on Billboard's 2011 Women in Music list. Hailing from Catskills, NY, Greenwald set out to make a change through teaching but her course took a completely different turn. In 1992, she became a summer assistant to Lyor Cohen under Def Jam Records and since then she has reached unimaginable heights.

In her interview with Billboard Editorial Director, Bill Werde, Greenwald talks about the foundational stage in her journey and her constant rise in the industry over the twenty years. Greenwald mentions the excitement of working for Def Jam and the state of Hip Hop in 1992: "Hip Hop was not in the mainstream yet. It was still in pockets of America in urban cities and urban marketplace. We did not have a lot of avenues to promote our music". Greenwald began to work with a culture that she didn't grow up around; a culture that laid in pockets of America in urban cities but a culture that turned into a global entity. As Greenwald grew within the industry and in ranks, Hip Hop grew as well.  She was one of very few women contributing to the rise of Hip Hop, but her being outnumbered didn't stop her. She hungered and thrived for more and became one of the most influential players in such a growing industry.

Jovanni Vatel, Marketing Intern at Atlantic Records sees Julie Greenwald as a Music Industry Pioneer. In a short conversation with Mr. Vatel, he poignantly said, "She is a mentor here to all her staff, setting the pedestal towards greatness. She can find the smallest seed in an artist, employee or intern; nurture them and raise them to move mountains". It is obvious that Greenwald creates an atmosphere of continued progress at Atlantic Records. Beyond the Lyrics congratulates Julie Greenwald on this major accomplishment.

To watch the interview with Bill Werde in its entirety, check out Billboard.biz and to see the complete list of Billboard's 2011 Women in Music, go here.

The Believer

On December 20, Common will be dropping his new album The Dreamer/The Believer. Over the years, Common has wowed us with his music as he remained an artist devoted to the culture of Hip Hop and the revolution it could, and did, stir. What better way to celebrate the Holiday season with what may be a breathtaking album.

Today, Common gives us an exclusive track, "The Believer" featuring the soul singer, John Legend. In the beginning of this song Common says, "I believe the blood of the struggle walking over troubled puddles. Hustle is in my chest. No hustle; no progress". It's safe to say that with "Blue Sky" and now "The Believer" Common is creating an album that will become TIMELESS; an album that will remain in the archives of Hip Hop where our children's children can understand even our struggles, success stories and more.

Listen to "The Believer" here.

The Barbie Doll Stir

This morning many of us woke up to news of Mattel beginning production on the Nicki Minaj Barbie doll*. We knew this was only a matter of time with the American rapper portraying a Barbie image in many of her videos/performances and referring to her fans, faithfully, as "Barbz". But, what has been more interesting to see was how the release of this news created a stir on Twitter. 

Taj Rani, editorial assistant at Music Choice, freelance entertainment/lifestyle journalist and Syracuse University Alum, tweeted “So Nicki Minaj got her own Barbie. Say what you want, BUT she’s changed the game in a way Kim didn’t. #theend”. A bold statement by the admirable journalist, but I couldn’t agree more. Since Nicki Minaj entered the rap scene she has received praise, but along with that praise came slander and controversy. Some individuals have said, time and time again, that Nicki Minaj has copied the gimmick of Lil Kim. But what some might not understand is that Lil Kim and Nicki Minaj are quite different. 

Lil Kim was an amazing lyricist that highly contributed to a male dominated sphere of Hip Hop and as an avid fan of the original ‘Bad Boy’ crew I pay much respect to Lil Kim. However, Nicki Minaj is doing what Lil Kim didn’t. Nicki Minaj has successfully disrupted the male domain, acclaiming power and has crossed over to various genres of music. We’ve witnessed Nicki Minaj perform a full tour with pop icon, Britney Spears; appear on the cover of Elle – a French originated magazine; and assert multiple identities that some may say undo the trending legacy of the “Jezebel” image. 

In Fly, Nicki Minaj says “Everybody wanna try to box me in, suffocating every time it locks me in. Painting they own pictures then they crop me in but I will remain where the top begins… I came to win, to fight, to conquer, to thrive”. Whether you believe she is here to stay or not, Beyond the Lyrics sends major kudos to Nicki Minaj and what she has created within the game.



* The Barbie doll will be put up for auction and all proceeds will be given to Project Angel Food – a charity that provides meals for men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS.