In America, Texas, Chicago, the Mid-West, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and northern California are the places where Chicano culture predominates and the book Chicano Rap discusses the historical, political, economic and cultural context of the young rappers emerged from these areas.

Chicano Rap was written by Assistant Professor Pancho McFarland at the Sociology faculty of Chicago State University, and analyzes 70 representative Chicano rappers and the lyrics of about 500 hip-hop songs in which misogyny and violence are common topics.

Introducing the book as a hip-hop project, McFarland takes you through the following chapters, Reading Chicano Rap: The Patriarchal Dominance Paradigm in the Postindustrial Barrio, Chicano Rap Primer: A Guide to Artists and Genres, Machos y Malas Mujeres: The Gendered Image, Sexual Agency in Chicana Rap: JV Versus Ms. Sancha, Violence and Chicano Rap: Mirror of a Belligerent Society, Chicano Rap on Globalization, and Confronting Dominance and Constructing Relationships with Young People.

Questioned about the term “Chicano”, Professor McFarland explained, “I prefer the term ‘Chicano’ as opposed to other ethnic identifiers for several reasons. First, often the rappers of Mexican and Mexican American descent in the United States on whom I focus here use ‘Chicano’ as their central racial/ethnic identifier.”

Even though, hip-hop is still heavily rooted in the African American culture or, can you name a few Chicano rappers or Chicano hip-hop acts that you remember?

The altercation occurred at Club Crucial, a popular hip-hop nightclub in Atlanta, Georgia, owned by T.I. Moreover, this venue is located in the Bankhead neighborhood where this famous rapper grew up, hence considered “T.I.’s territory,” in words of his fans witnessing the beef.

Meatball, the alleged attacker, already explained how the incident took place, but Shawty Lo says now that such incident had nothing to do with his supposed rivalry with T.I. and nobody touched or robbed him. “It really wasn’t nothing, just some Bowen Homes sh*t. It wasn’t an altercation with me at all. I didn’t get touched, period. And this had nothing to do with T.I.,” Shawty Lo said to AllHipHop during an interview a few days ago.

Shawty Lo and T.I. rivalry is not a secret and there are a series of videos in which Shawty reveals nasty thing on T.I.’s background, while T.I. prefers point fire-fingers to Shawty by means of his lyrics.

Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. (T.I.) was born on September 25, 1980 and Carlos Walker (Shawty Lo) on March 31, 1976, but sharing a common birth place, Atlanta Georgia, so many people believe their rivalry goes beyond music.

Best of Atlanta Hip-hop Music

Among the actors and musician performing at the convention Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Ben Affleck, Cheryl Hines, Scarlett Johansson, Ed Norton Jr., Maggie Gyllenhaal, Forrest Whitaker, Wyclef Jean, rap-fusion band N.E.R.D. and hip-hop king Kanye West have confirmed their participation.

The Democratic National Convention has also several confirmed sponsors including Google, Motorola, Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, Xcel Energy, United Airlines, Coors Brewing Company, and Qwest.

Althought the convention is aiming to attract the attention on political issues, everybody is focusing on hip-hop remembering an interview to Senator Obama past year in which he referred to his jazz music orientation, naming John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Beyonce and Jay-Z as some of the artists he likes to listen.

As the convention time approaches, more celebrities may join the entertainers list. Chris Lopez, a host committee spokesman said  “We are expecting both the A-List of Hollywood as well as citizens from across the country to show up in Denver and enjoy the convention. There will be something for everyone to enjoy and participate in. It will be an amazing week that will culminate with the historical nomination of Barack Obama at Invesco Field on Thursday evening, August 28.”

Ebony Stylez is a band emerging from what Erick Emmanuel defines as a “hard hitting hip hop industry overnight success out of New York City.” Ebony Stylez and Emmanuel have teamed for the past two years featuring hype men and dancers show to make of their concerts one of a kind.

Until now the music and updates on Ebony Stylez activities have been only available through MySpace since Erick Emmanuel has turned down offers from several labels approaching with excellent record deals to keep the artistic side of the band in what we can call a concept image that Alonce Music Agency will promote on radio and TV station for the rest of 2008 before starting a nationwide campaign next year.

Joey Pavel, Representative of Alonce Music Agency revealed that “We get so many submissions every day that our submission team has to go through, but Ebony Stylez moved quickly through our submission process. We were quick to notice their spectacular image and unforgettable sound.”

Discover Ebony Stylez Music

According to the museum’s committee, hip-hop is such a cultural phenomenon in the American society that deserved this to honor. The movement was first introduced by African American residing in the turbulent New York suburbs of Harlem and Bronx, and shortly after it was enriched by Latinos and other minority groups encompassing a series of elements such as DJ’ing, MC’ing (rapping), B-boying (breakdancing, and urban inspired tagging commonly knows as graffiti.

The hip-hop culture was formerly identified as a manifestation of refrained violence and segregation in suburbs and ghettos, but soon was adopted as a lifestyle to which many young American feel identified regardless their color, race, sex, or religion.

At Cleveland, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum display includes a large number of assorted flyers from around 1977 to 1987 featuring hip-hop work from Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Kool Herc, Saul Abbatiello, Lovebug Starski, Grandmaster, and Phase Too.

However you can also enjoy personal stuff from Queen Latifah, Ice-T, Slick Rick, Jay-Z, Pepa of Salt-n-Pepa, Grandmaster Flash, Snoop Dogg, Run D.M.C. The collection also includes, but is not limited to, original artwork from Public Enemy, Prince Paul, a rare “Rapture” lyric manuscript written by Chris Stein and Debbie Harry in 1979, and a letter from the FBI to N.W.A.’s Priority Records.

Rock the Bells is more than a live experience for Q-Tip and his fans, but an opportunity to introduce some of his new musical work to be released in the upcoming “The Renaissance” album. This is a long-time waited record, bearing in mind that Q-Tip released his previous solo album in 1999.

Q-Tip recent appearance at Bicentennial Park in between sets with Tribe produced the single “Gettin’ Up” that fans can listen at the rapper’s MySpace website, but from the album “Amplified” (”Vibrant Thing”) to “The Renaissance” there are almost ten years of difference.

The rapper describes “The Renaissance” as a transition work. In a recent interview he said, “I think it went off the track there for awhile, but it’s coming around to something more substantive and more imaginative, which is great.”

At Rock the Bells Q-Tip will perform the heading act alongside A Tribe Called Quest, his former group founded in 1988 that produced two of the most representative hip-hop albums before disbanding ten years later in 1998.

According to Q-Tip, hip-hop is suffering a transition, even though “The Renaissance” is a very hip-hop album plenty of life inspiration that is worth listen to.

Q-Tip was born Jonathan Davis on April 10, 1970, in Harlem, New York and changed his name to Kamaal Ibn John Fareed in the mid-1990s when he was converted to Islam. 

Q-Tip and A Tribe Called Quest Downloads

As a company, the label’s venture started on 1989 and it was until 1991 when Knight and Dr. Dre founded the company that would be known as Death Row Records, achieving huge success signing some of the best rappers of that decade, including Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound, 2Pac, and Dr. Dre himself.

A US judge ordered the takeover of the company and it was Global Music Group, a New York-based firm winner of the label that went into an auction.

This purchase included the original back catalog and the rights over unreleased material by late rapper 2Pac (Tupac Shakur) who passed away in 1996 after being shot.

Death Row Records sold about 50 million units worldwide, generating around $750 million in revenue with a catalog that included MC Hammer, Danny Boy, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, RBX, DJ Quik, Gina Longo, Mark Morrison, The Lady of Rage, J-Flexx, Tha Realest, Michel’le, Crooked I, Sam Sneed, Eastwood, Bow Wow, among other rappers.

On April, Suge Knight missed a court hearing to declare on his assets, but he missed several others during a legal battle with former business partner Lydia Harris over the record label. Knight lost $107 million judgement civil judgment that he avoided to paid making the Judge ordered the takeover and following auction.

Download Death Row Records Music Catalog

About this book, Nancy Mendez, a high school student said,  ”Hip Hop High School is one of the greatest books I’ve ever read. It has many of the issues that teenagers face in their present day life. It even allows those who don’t face these situations realize what’s going on in our society. I only hope that many more people read this book, it can perhaps lead to a great change in their life.”

As a writer, Alan wants young adult readers engaged with the topics of his books speaking about every day issues they can see around as part of their own environment and not like a somewhat fairy tales when it comes to reading the classic of Literature.

Nonetheless, Alan Lawrence Sitomer was also named Teacher of the Year by California Literacy in 2003, and his book  Hip-Hop Poetry and The Classics is a classroom text reading across in most high schools nationwide.

Popularly known as Mr. Alan by his students, this talented writer lives in Los Angeles with his wife, daughter and pet, working as inner-city high school English teacher and professor in the Graduate School of Education at the closer Loyola Marymount University.

About his work as an author, Mr. Alan says “Sometimes I use real people as the basis for characters and sometimes I make up characters and try to fashion them into real people.” Either way, young people feel identified with his stories and that is the clue of his success. 

This time was the turn to hear the female audience exploring the hip hop culture in which the younger are raised, although we could watch among the participants people like rapper and producer David Banner, hip hop artists and activists Clayton Gavin and M1 Dead Prez, as well as author, director amd producer Nelson George along with other celebrities.

The topic of the show was around how much is doing the American society for the young ladies who following hip hop lifestyle models try to find their own role in an every day more demanding community that often is intolerant with neo-cultural groups.

Hip Hop vs. America II, where did the love go? brought opinions from hip hop recording artists such as Lyfe Jennings, Talib Kweli, Lavonne Alford and Black Girls Rock, Inc, who supported by journalists Lola Ogunnaike, Esther Armah, and Allison Samuels depicted the modern American hip hop girls fighting for their own identities and discovering that America is truly ready to see itself as it is and not just like a golden dream.

In an interview with MediaTakeOut.com Erykah said “I am an excellent mother and resent all the negative comments and insults on my character. I put much time and thought into having and raising my children. I’ve had the honors of having two home births and two wonderful partners by my side.”

Undoubtedly Erykah Badu is a soul singer and songwriter who deserves not only respect to her art but her intimacy being discussed over and over and over. Born Erica Abi Wright on February 26, 1971 in Dallas, Texas, she knows how hard is for a mother raise her children when the father leaves the home behind, as her own father did in her early childhood so nobody better than she to manage her personal decisions on motherhood.

Erykah has earned countless fans with her gifted singing style that mixes hip hop, jazz, and rhythm & blues, often referred as a cerebral and eccentric neo soul sub-genre who has been invited to play supportive roles in different movies, including the Blues Brothers 2000.

As a multi-award winning artist, Erykah Badu’s most acclaimed work has been “Love of My Life (Ode to Hip-Hop),” Best Video of the Year by American Music Awards in 2003, and best Collaboration, Best Film Song, Best R&B Song, and Best Urban/Alternative Performance, by BET Awards, Black Reel Awards, and Grammy Awards respectively in that same year.

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