Proof that autotune can make anyone a musician.

[Little Dragon: Time travelers...]

It was over 2 weeks ago, but seeing Little Dragon for the second time at SF’s The Independent was one of the dopest music experiences I’ve had in a long, long time. I’ve been in a weird limbo with regards to artistic expression and working to figuring out the best medium to express myself through, that not only doesn’t add to oppression, but works to confront it. At the same time, I want to ensure that I am able to find a middle ground in which I can express raw emotion that flows from all people, without being too calculated and thinking too much. Its a search for a funny balance of thoughtfulness and the pure, sometimes ugly, funk that secretes from my heart.

What I witnessed the night I attended this concert was my shero/Haafu-sister/celeb-crush Yukimi Nagano do just that. It was wild to see her (and her incredible band) grow exponentially since a year after watching them for the first tme. I think for me personally, it felt dope to see a mixed race Japanese heritage artist fully shining and repping their weird, goofy self to the utmost extreme. The first time I saw her, she was shy, reserved, and to me, very culturally “Japanese” (if you wanna get all ethnic/racial essentialist out here =P), but this time, homegirl was en fuego. She had new dances, was calling out the crowd and was feelin the sh*t outta herself! Her growth and progression as a musician was fresh to witness. It made me feel hopeful.

[put that in your pipe and shmoke it, gregory alan mitchell =)]

I think something that has helped me come to a place of peace I haven’t experienced for some time, is that I’ve begun to be comfortable in knowing I will never find a place where I am completely comfortable. And when I think about it, I don’t believe anybody ever is completely comfortable (maybe certain circles of rich, white, hetero, men?) even if they are monoracial. I’m beginning to feel that a solid, unchanging identity can never be found in race and racial politics, regardless of who you are. Race and identity are both far too fluid to lock one’s claws into whilst never feeling unsettled (feel free to debate with or challenge me on this). Everything is impermanent and discomfort and suffering are part of the human condition. In their own way, LD remind me to acknowledge this fact, and I take comfort =P that Yukimi seems to have found a way to take pride in and enjoy her art, despite what the world throws her way. In other words, I’m tryna be a more little-dragonish myself these days (as most of us prolly are =P).

[Little Dragon - Swimming]

Little Dragon sounds like elements of everything I loved about music from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, while producing a sonic boombap that makes the future look bright and sound like it has just arrived.

BUY MACHINE DREAMS!

Sen

p.s. LD’s keyboard man, Hakan Wirestrand’s beard aint nuthin’ ta f*ck wit’! If my genetics allowed me to do so, I’d grow my sh*t like that asap! =P

[18 Mighty Mountain Warriors - Illegal Immigrants]

[The Pinky Show - "How to Solve Illegal Immigration" (HELLA funny!)]

Happy Thangstaken to all my fellow illegal immigrants (whilst not really knowing how to wrap my head around the continuing genocide of indigenous folks, the fact that enslaved African heritage folks didn’t first arrive here of their own free will, and that the U.S. continues to profit from these facts today =T).

Giving Thanks,
Masashi

Black Dontae’s latest album, The Ecstatic is real smoove-like. As much as I think he’s a talented singer, I’ve missed his lyricism since Black on Both Sides, something awful. This is just a little sample of his latest freshness to 2-step to on another manic Monday.

U stay classy(?) internets,
senbei

[2009 BET Hip-Hop Awards - DJ Premiere conducts "The Cypher"]

Talented lyricists are an endangered species.

[DemocracyNow Interview w/ Amy Goodman pt. 1]

[pt. 2]

[pt. 3]

[pt. 4]

Click HERE to buy this book.

Peace!
C

Music at its best…is the grand archeology into and transfiguration of our guttural cry, the great human effort to grasp in time our deepest passions and yearnings as prisoners of time. Profound music leads us–beyond language–to the dark roots of our scream and the celestial
heights of our silence.

-Cornel West

His autobiography, Brother West: Living & Loving Out Loud just came out. Cop it HERE!

Working my hardest to live & love out loud,

C

p.s.

[Cornel West w/ Amy Goodman on DemocracyNow]

Tuesday, November 3 at 3:30 p.m.

The event will include performances of spoken word, dance, and song. There will also be a candle light vigil once it begins to get dark. The theme color will be turquoise which represents sexual assault.

Donation checks can be sent to:

Assault Victim Fund
Richmond High School
1250 23rd St.
Richmond, CA 94804

The checks should be made out to “Richmond High School Student Fund.” On the memo line, write “Assault Victim Fund.”

I was born and raised in a “safer” part of the “City of Pride and Purpose,” and still managed to see friends and fellow residents murdered, incarcerated, and become victims of police brutality, physical and/or sexual assault (as you see above). My father/hero was the Officer of Public Communications for the Richmond Unified School District (which changed it’s name to the West Contra Costa County Schools after going bankrupt) for more than 20 years and today I am glad he wasn’t the one on camera having to answer for this heartbreaking, violent crime perpetuated in a morally bankrupt society. Although in the long run, it really doesn’t mean a fucking thing, I send my love and prayers to the 15-year-old girl who was brutally raped, beaten and humiliated for 2 hours by up to 10 different young men.

A lot of what fucks with me daily, is my knowledge that the role the history of race and class oppression/privilege played in my life was that it simultaneously kept me safe from Richmond’s most violent and deadly trauma, but also allowed me to witness and internalize as “normal,” so many of it’s affects. Dr. Tricia Rose calls this “survivors guilt” amongst African Americans and I am not sure how it pertains to me personally as an Asian American of mixed race, though I am working on how to best understand it. Knowing what I know about the safety my skin color and racialization gave me not only as a young person, but also through the history of my family versus that of my Black, Raza, and Southeast Asian American homies growing up, does not allow me to function in this fucked up world, smiling like everything is okay.

The other day my mentor said, “I want to dream of a world where someone like Bill Gates isn’t even accepted by our society. We would tell him, ‘how dare you. how dare you have all that wealth while so many childrend are suffering and dying because they lack the resource to love and respect themselves and each other. you have no place here. we don’t want you.” I think in this period of my young adult life, I’ve become confused between being disillusioned and being hopeful. I want to believe being disillusioned doesn’t mean hope has no place in my brain’s repetoire. Somewhere along the line I momentarily forgot to dream that we didn’t need to accept the shitty, shabby, undeniably fucked-up treatment of young people of color.

To be honest, I’m not really sure what the point of this post is, but I’ve found that many times my rants on this insignificant space on the internet later assist me in discovering where I am coming up short. They many times shed light for me on where I’m not reaching my full potential in using my male, heterosexual, educated, whiteness, East Asian(?), etc. privilege to redistribute resources in a community, county, state, country, society, and world that lets it’s babies do this to each other, and then proceeds to blame them for it happening. What these young men did was vile, disturbing, and reprehensible and had it been my wife or daughter, I’d probably want to end their lives with my own hands; however, I question how putting the young men who committed these terrible acts in prison, will work to ensure the ending of violence toward young women (particularly of color).

I will be so fucking surprised if that $20,000 reward Police are offering for snitching turns up ANYTHING at all, because Richmond PD have long been known to fail at protecting and serving their residents (my neighbor was killed by Richmond PD in his own home 2 houses down when I was 14). People won’t come forward if they won’t be protected, and I don’t think I personally know a single, solitary person under the age of 30 in the 510, 707, 408, or 415 area codes that doesn’t feel like absolute shit when they see when red and blue lights flashing.

If anybody knows of any type of action being taken to see that someone (besides the youth they are arresting) is held accountable, so that something like this never happens again, PLEASE let me know. Although I now live 2 houses outside its limits, Richmond will always be my home and I refuse to sit by and witness any more Richmond babies molested and murdered.

Richmond is:
Family, love, resilience, heartbreak, devastation, working harder than anyone knows, and has been under attack for the entirety of my life.

You Can’t (continue to) Blame the Youth,

C

[Pharaohe Monch - Welcome to the Terrordome]

Troy Donald Jamerson > most.

SEN

p.s. For the youngsters out there (damn, I thought I’d never be this dude =P), this is a remake of Public Enemy’s classic from the LP, Fear of a Black Planet.