BET Brings Back the Apollo with Jamie Foxx as the Host
By: Kirsten West Savali, Your Black World
Who doesn't remember the Sandman coming out and kicking would-be singers off the stage in embarrassing fashion? What about the lovely Kiki Shepard? Let's not forget about the beautiful dancers electrifying the aisles, as the theme music prepared audiences for the Apollo Theatre experience:
"It's Showtime!"
Black Entertainment Television (BET) is counting on that nostalgia to attract viewers to the new Showtime at the Apollo---now simply named Showtime---set to air on the network next year with the hilarious Jamie Foxx as the host.
Foxx has no worries about the now competitive field of reality television, such as American Idol, So You Think You Can, and American's Got Talent. The Apollo brand is far ahead of the pack and relying on audience participation provides instant gratification for viewers:
“The Apollo did it long before ‘American Idol,’ except the audience was the judge," says Foxx.
Showtime at the Apollo aired in 1987 and continued to run through 2002. Taping for the new episodes begins this week.
Weigh in, YBW Family. Will you be watching the new Showtime?
TI Has a Welcome Home Brunch After Being Released from the Joint
The rapper TI is finally out of prison and celebrating like the superstar big baller that he is. The artist just finished an 11-month sentence for parole violation, with his celebration set to happen on October 2. TMZ is reporting that the event will occur two days after the artist has been released from an Atlanta halfway house.
Even Diddy is joining in on the fun, shipping 150 bottles of Ciroc Vodka, one bottle for every person who attends the party. He is also spending $20,000 on food and $8,000 on desserts. The total expected cost of the little get together is about $100,000.
Let's hope that TI stays out of trouble this time. There was controversy last month when he was sent back to prison for riding home in a luxury bus that was not approved by the feds. TI's wife, Tiny Cottle, says that authorities have been out to get him for a while, and that this was just another step in their quest to keep him behind bars. Perhaps TI himself can also do what it takes to remain a free man.
Kirsten West-Savali: Tyler the Creator Has Become an Ignorant “Young Nigga”
By: Kirsten West Savali, Your Black World
When Tyler the Creator, 20, stepped onto MTV’s VMA stage to accept his Moonman for Best New Artist in August, he delivered an acceptance speech reflective of both his questionable intellect and contagious effervescence:
"Yo, I'm excited as f--- right now, yo," he said. "I wanted this sh-- since I was 9. I'm about to cry. This is for my little brother Earl. He's not here right now. I really can't believe I'm here right now. I didn't write a thank you speech. I don't know. F---. To all the kids watching, you can do this sh--. Thank you."
As his tearful mother beamed with pride, crying and jumping in the air, the mastermind behind the latest Hip-Hop group to diminish the value of the culture, Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (OFWGKTA), bounced off the stage with his “entourage” --- a flurry of skinny jeans and misguided potential.
In watching a replay of the emotional moment, I’m left wondering if Mom realized that a month later her son, born Tyler Okonma, would be a “young nigga’?
Known for the intrinsic paradox of his misogynist, homophobic and humorous lyrics, Tyler has joined with major label Sony/REDto cause potentially irreparable damage to the psyches of Black youth living in America and around the globe --- electing to rap as his alter ego, “Young Nigga.”
Delighted by the media attention, and content with whoring out a young boy’s ignorance, a statement on the label's website reads:
“While our original intent was not to sign anyone to the label we simply could not pass up the opportunity to sign somebody this talented. Young Nigga embodies the DIY ethic and persona of Odd Future along with a commercial appeal that transcends demographics.”
In other words, “Go out there, shuck and jive and step'n fetchit, ‘nigga.’ The world is watching.”
In an interview with NTE, Tyler was asked about the damaging nature of his lyrics, to which he responded just as society has come to expect from a “young nigga”:
“I’m not homophobic. I just think ‘faggot’ hits and hurts people. It hits. And ‘gay’ just means you’re stupid. I don’t know, we don’t think about it, we’re just kids. We don’t think about that s--t. But I don’t hate gay people. I don’t want anyone to think I’m homophobic.”
He continued to prove his elementary understanding of complex issues in an interview with MTV, saying that “Well, I have gay fans and they don’t really take it offensive, so I don’t know. If it offends you, it offends you. If you call me a nigga, I really don’t care, but that’s just me, personally. Some people might take it the other way; I personally don’t give a sh—.”
The words of a “young nigga.”
Let’s be clear: Tyler the Creator is sick on the mic --- both figuratively and literally. His wordplay is on par with a young Marshall Mathers before the suicide attempts and rehab, blended with the urban, dark horror-core of Flint, Michigan’s Dayton Family.
It’s profoundly perverse and brilliant in its honesty --- with all the guilty magnetism of a fatal car crash. The unrepentant testosterone laced lyrics speak to the alpha-male who beats his chest with the rest of his unevolved pack in marijuana-clouded ciphers around the world, repeating lyrics of violence against women and homosexuals too politically incorrect to say once they re-emerge into polite society. This “young nigga’s” persona allows young white Americans entree into a New Teen Order, where little Black children and little white children come together in a gumbo pot of racial and sexual intolerance, guided by their skateboards and unchecked hormonal imbalances.
Let’s call it Dr. King’s Nightmare.
Boisterous and intense, Tyler’s music speaks to the nature of what Jean Jacques Rousseau called “the noble savage,” and if left to proliferate, will grow like poisonous weeds, choking out any remnants of possibility this generation has to elevate above its parental and societal-prescribed mediocrity.
With lyrics such as, “Rape a pregnant b---h and tell my friends I had a threesome,” and the mind-numbing verbal dexterity of, “I got n-ts to bust, and butts to f--k, and ups to shut, and sluts to f---ing uppercut,” the Tyler the Creator led band of misfits cautions:
“It's OF, buttercup, go ahead, f--k with us.”
No, I’ll pass; thank you. I’ll leave that to police officers, potential employers and society to do since you insist on wearing a sign that screams “Profile Me” around your neck.
Undoubtedly, if this article ever reaches the eyes of Tyler he will take it as a compliment --- another out of touch old lady (in her 30s) being hyper-critical of the metamorphosis of Hip-Hop and its new generation of heroes. He will complain and curse about it on Twitter, and his legions of fan will regurgitate whatever profanity infused vitriol he hurls into cyberspace, eager to protect their favorite “young nigga.”
Ask me if I care.
Acceptance of destructive garbage disguised as art will lead our children into mistaking it as an acceptable social-political position. “Fag” becomes just a generic insult, “slut” becomes just what girls are, and “nigga” becomes just cool slang.
Is this the world we want for our children? Have we become so eager to be seen as tolerant and hip and post-racial that timeless values and historical implications have become archaic concepts?
There is a vast difference between freedom of expression and the imprisonment of ideals, and Tyler the Creator has willingly thrown himself into a filthy media-secured jail cell, where a voyeuristic society --- eager to understand the innermost thoughts of a “young nigga” --- come by to gawk at him like the embarrassment that he is.
I look into this young man’s eyes and see a joy that is irrepressible, an unfettered love for his craft and a redundant rebellion against a society and a system that is designed to see him fail. I listen to him call himself “schizophrenic” and I watch him grasp at every negative characterization that comes with being young and Black in America, attempting to capture and own it before it can be used against him in a public court of presumption.
I get it.
Unfortunately, “getting it” does not lessen my disgust.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011, the state of Georgia murdered a Black man. The Dixiecratic state strapped Troy Davis to a gurney for three hours, holding his life in their hands, finally deciding---along with the United States Supreme Court---that he wasn’t good enough before they lynched him before the world.
They thought he was a “young nigger.”
Rodney Stanberry, imprisoned by the state of Alabama over 15 years ago for crimes he did not commit, has been ignored by our injustice system, while his son continues to grow up without a father.
They think he’s a “young nigger.”
James Craig Anderson was beat viciously, then killed by a group of white supremacists in Mississippi, as screams of “white power” filled the morning air.
They were looking to kill a “ young nigger.”
Every time there is an unsolved murder in the Black community, every time a young Black teenager gives birth, every time a baggy-jeaned, diamond-teethed, no talent rapper spits venom at his own community, the world sees a “young nigger.”
So, you see, Tyler, as original as you think that moniker may be, it’s not. “Brotha” is short for brother and “nigga” is short for nigger --- nothing more than a dangerous manifestation of self-hatred that was branded into the fabric of this society before you were old enough to be the punchline you’ve become.
You have young people listening to your every word, mimicking your style and embracing your philosophy --- they deserve more than to witness you negligently become a caricature of all that Black manhood encompasses. When you cast yourself as a spokesperson of this Odd Future we're on the cusp of, crying and telling children from that VMA stage that "you can do this sh-t," I remain hopeful that you weren't suggesting that they simply become a "nigga."
You are a king, Tyler Okonma, not an abbreviated "nigger"; act like it.
Kirsten West Savali is a Senior Editor and writer at Your Black World. Connect with her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter: @KWestSavali
Former NFL Star Orlando Brown Found Dead at 40
Former Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Orlando Brown was found dead in his Maryland home Friday at the age of 40.
TRAGIC SPORTS DEATHS
Sports has lost many athletes way too soon. We list a few.Baltimore authorities do not believe foul play was involved, nor were they able to find anything that indicated how Brown died, according to the Baltimore Sun. An autopsy will be performed.
Brown's family called police Friday after they were unable to reach him for days, the Carroll County Times reported. Fire spokesman Battalion Chief Kevin Cartwright said firefighters were called about 11 a.m. Friday because Brown was unresponsive at his home near the Inner Harbor. Cartwright said Brown was dead when firefighters arrived.
"He was a beast on the field and a great friend off it. It's a shame he had to leave us so young," Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs said in a comment posted on Twitter by the Ravens.
Head coach John Harbaugh announced Brown's death in his briefing with reporters Friday morning, as the team gets set to travel to St. Louis to play the Rams Sunday.
"We just found out before the end of practice," said Harry Swayne, Brown's former teammate and fellow tackle. "We were close friends. It's tough, it's tough. I talked to him a month ago and told him, 'Zeus, you didn't have to block half the people you played against because they were scared of you.' "He was a puppy dog, a big old puppy dog with a little bit of a bark. He had a lot of friends around the league. He was one of the best guys. It's a tough loss."
Brown started his career with the Cleveland Browns in 1993 and remained with the organization through its move to Baltimore in 1996.
Beyonce’s Mama Puts Her House Up for Sale
Fashion designer Tina Knowles and mother of world renown entertainer, Beyonce has put her sprawling Houston, Texas mansion on the market.
The beautiful home has a carved stone fireplace, multilevel formal living and dining room, and a 50 foot wall of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the backyard pool.
With the asking price being $3.5 million, reports suggest the "palace" was a gift from Beyonce back in 2004. She paid only $1.6 million for the estate.
With at least two other properties in the Houston area, Knowles also has a modest ranch residence and lakefront house in a gated community, according to public records.
NFL Player Accused of Running a Drug Distribution Network
A 2.5 pound shipment of marijuana was taken from the home of Cincinnati Bengals receiver Jerome Simpson this week. A Bengals tackle, Anthony Collins, was arrested with Simpson at the home when the package arrived. Police from the California Department of Justice tracked the shipment from the moment it left California as part of their investigation.
When police searched Simpson's home, they found another six pounds of marijuana, as well as "packaging materials, scales and smoking devices."
Both players were detained, but not arrested, pending further investigation. The head of the National Marijuana Initiative, a group that fights the distribution of marijuana, said that Simpson's house has been set up as a distribution network.
"They had it all set up to receive supplies of high-grade marijuana from Northern California, and from there, it was being distributed from that residence," said Tommy LaNier, the head of the organization.
T.I. Finds that Prison is Good For Business: Spike in Sales of His Clothing Line
by Valencia Roner, Your Black World
T.I.'s recent incarceration has been great for business. His business.
Sales for the rapper's clothing line, A.K.O.O. (A King Of One's Self) have skyrocketed while he's been behind bars, according to a rep for the brand.
The company's sales soared by 25 percent in the last year while the rapper served time for violating probation on a drug charge (later dismissed).
A.K.O.O. hadn't seen such a surge since T.I.'s MTV reality show Road to Redemption premiered in 2009.
A.K.O.O. is a clothing line started in late 2008 and founded by T.I. and Jason Geter, both co-founders of Atlanta-based recording label Grand Hustle Records.
After the launch of the clothing line, A.K.O.O faced a lawsuit from Akoo International, a social Music TV Network established years before the clothing line, for copyright infringement. The world’s largest online social music television site had been using the trademarked name since 2004 and thought the infringement would mislead, confuse and deceive potential customers and clients.
The rep says they're preparing for another spike in sales when T.I. is set free from his halfway house next week after completing his drug sentence.
He is scheduled for release on September 26.
Steve Martin Writes Open Letter to Eddie Murphy about Hosting the Oscars
Steve Martin had some princely advice for Eddie Murphy as he prepares to host the Oscars this year. The two actors have known each other for years, even starring together in the horrible film, "Bowfinger." Martin, who is known for providing a laugh or two in his day, took the time to congratulate Murphy and share his reflections in a pretty funny way.
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