Crib Notes

David Banner represents everything I love — and loathe — about mainstream hip-hop. You can read this week’s CL cover story, “Power Moves: David Banner walks tightrope between politics and profit”, on the rapper who released his fifth solo album, The Greatest Story Ever Told, today.

There isn’t another southern rapper on commercial radio who infuses so much passion and socio-political angst into his music. Yet, he’s also quick to indulge in (and excuse) rap’s obsession with misogyny and crass commercialism.

In an interview with him last week, I asked Banner if he ever feels torn in too many different directions by making music that covers everything from explicit sex talk to sociocultural concerns? His provocative response summed up his penchant for keeping it extra real:

“I think life is a contradiction. How much Hennessy and weed do we smell Sunday morning from people coming from the club the night before? People are walking contradictions and they point so many fingers, and we don’t look at ourselves. I’m just the most honest motherfucker….

“We’re all like that. And we need to tell our kids that Martin Luther King was a womanizer. Martin Luther King liked getting pussy. I don’t know why everybody just wants to make him so perfect? That’s what makes black folks not want to be like Martin Luther King, because they think he’s too perfect…. Naw, tell ‘em that man had a weakness for women.

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About a month before T.I. walked into a federal courtroom in Atlanta, he took the stand in a televised but slightly less publicized trial of a different sort. “Hip-Hop vs. America,” the taped town-hall panel that aired on BET, also featured rappers Nelly (of credit-card ass-swiping, “Tip Drill” fame) and Mike Jones. They defended commercial rap’s exploitative excess against critics such as Stanley Crouch, Nelson George, Farai Chideya and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

The YouTube video above is from part one of the second round of congressional hearings held in September on hip-hop. You can read more about that hearing — which featured rappers David Banner, Master P and intellectual Michael Eric Dyson — and some of the controversy surrounding the genre in this week’s music story: “It’s bigger than T.I.: Hip-hop is on trial and everybody’s snitching.”

The rest of the congressional hearing footage, below the jump, is must-see stuff, even though nothing much is likely to result from it. Curiously, footage of record company executives speaking before Congress in part one of the hearing is harder to find.

Click here to view BET’s three-part town-hall panel “Hip-Hop vs. America,” which aired in September.

Click here to view Oprah Winfrey’s “After Imus: The Hip-Hop Community Responds,” which aired in April.

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From the shooting allegedly involving rapper J.T. Money at Opera on Thursday night to T.I.’s gun-related arrest by federal agents just hours before the awards show was scheduled to begin at the Civic Center Saturday evening, the BET Hip-Hop Awards weekend seemed to go from bad to worse and has left an air of depression over much of the city’s hip-hop community.

The cathartic conclusion to the weekend’s events occurred Sunday at Justin’s restaurant, where AllHipHop.com hosted a brunch featuring Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, who addressed an audience of rappers, industry supporters and fans alike about the seemingly dire state of hip-hop.

The emotional floodgates swung open Monday morning as callers and show hosts voiced their opinions on Atlanta’s urban stations, V-103 (WVEE-FM 103.3) and HOT 107.9 (WHTA-FM). When the conversation turned to T.I.’s arrest, listening to the range of comments was almost like dissecting the rapper’s recent album, T.I. vs. TIP, on which his commercially viable persona wages war with his street-loyal, do-or-die self. There was an obvious split between fans who have taken up the cry to “Free T.I.P.” and those who are fed up with rappers such as T.I. (Clifford Harris Jr.) for making ill-fated decisions that often send their careers, and their lives, into a downward spiral (see Tupac).

While supporters acknowledge T.I.’s wrongdoing, if the alleged charges are true that the two-time felon used his bodyguard to purchase unregistered firearms, many echoed the sentiments of the ongoing “stop snitching” campaign popularized by rappers.

“Be careful of the people you let in your circle,” said morning show host Frank Ski on V-103, while expressing his personal hurt over the incident. He then played a portion of an in-studio interview he conducted with T.I. that was coincidentally taped July 3, 2007 — the same month, Ski noted, that T.I.’s bodyguard/cooperating witness first started working with the rapper — in which T.I. states that the only people allowed in his circle are people he’s known for years:

I’m a loyal cat. I mean, if you notice, everybody who’s around me has been around me. Everybody. You know what I’m saying. You ain’t seen me with no new faces since I’m Serious. Doug, C-Rod, K.P., Big Kuntry, Mac Boney, J. Geter … Hannah — all these same people been around every since I’m Serious — from security down. That’s just in me ’cause you don’t find good people all the time. It’s hard to find good people. It’s hard to find genuine people who got your best interest at heart and who [are] gonna do right by you regardless of … the money. (more…)

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Here’s a gallery of stars at the 2007 BET Hip-Hop Awards. The photos were taken by Kimberly Neal and Justin Lee from J. Lee Photography.

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“Where’s T.I.?” That’s what the crowd asked when he and Common won the CD of the Year Award at the 2007 BET Hip-Hop Awards taping last Saturday, Oct. 13, and only Common walked to the stage to pick up his trophy. The award was a “tie” jointly given to Common for Finding Forever, and T.I. for T.I. vs. T.I.P. Then, as the night went on, rumors circulated that his house was raided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and he had been arrested.

By now, of course, everyone knows what happened to T.I. Yesterday, AJC.com posted a story recounting the arrest:

Authorities said Harris paid his bodyguard $12,000. The man then purchased three 9-mm machine guns and two 9-mm silencers from an undercover agent at a K-mart store lot.

When federal agents arrested the bodyguard, he allegedly told them the guns were for Harris, and that he’d purchased about 25 firearms for his boss in the last year and a half. He agreed to cooperate with authorities.

Harris linked up with his bodyguard Saturday afternoon in a shopping center parking lot in midtown Atlanta. Authorities said the musician arrived in a car with three firearms, including one tucked between the driver’s seat and the center console.

When the bodyguard explained the function of one silencer, Harris allegedly said, “No flash, no bang.” He also asked for “change left over” from the $12,000, according to the criminal complaint. Agents then moved in and arrested Harris without incident.

If the allegations are true, and T.I. is subsequently convicted, he will become the latest rapper to earn an extended prison sentence this year, joining a list that already includes Foxy Brown and Prodigy from Mobb Deep. It’s a tragic development in what has been an incredibly difficult year for hip-hop fans.

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BET just announced the nominees for its second annual hip-hop awards, and it’s full of the usual suspects. T.I., whose T.I. vs. T.I.P. ranks as one of the most disappointing albums of the year (if not necessarily one of the worst), leads the field with nine nominations. Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Common, Jay-Z, Ludacris, 50 Cent and UGK also drew multiple nominations. The competitors for CD of the Year are T.I.’s aforementioned opus, Jay-Z’s Kingdom Come, Ludacris’ Release Therapy, Common’s Finding Forever, and Nas’ Hip Hop Is Dead. KRS-One will get an honorary I Am Hip-Hop Award. The BET.com site lists all of the nominees, which you can view here.

The 2007 BET Hip-Hop Awards will be held Saturday, Oct. 13, at the Atlanta Civic Center. (The 2006 edition took place at the Fox Theatre.) A frequent complaint about last year’s show was that it lacked star power: It seemed like every performance featured Young Jeezy and DJ Drama, and Jay-Z only appeared for a few moments. The controversial cable channel will rectify that with scheduled performances by Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Nelly, Common and others. Katt Williams, whose opening monologue last year drew plenty of raves, returns as the host.

For a review of the 2006 BET Hip-Hop Awards, read my November 15, 2006, story here.

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What does CNN know about hip-hop?

Not much, based on the segment it aired last weekend (Sept. 1) grilling Bomani “D’mite” Armah and his song/video “Read a Book.”

On the surface, it’s hard to argue in favor of chanted lyrics that chide listeners to “Read a book! Read a book! Read a muh’fuckin’ book!” But place the satirical song and video in its proper context, and it offers a biting social commentary on rap music’s explicit excess.

CNN’s lopsided coverage of the broiling controversy over the video for the song almost seemed like a parody in itself. Maybe the network was trying to show what it would look like if its “fair and balanced” competitor Fox News had tackled the topic. CNN obviously went out of its way to organize a panel of local black parents — which included several key players in the city’s progressive music scene: Kembo Tom, DJ Tabone, Cara Clark and Eddie Meeks — and get them all riled up over the video, then tape them condemning it so it would segue perfectly into news anchor Tony Harris’ attempt to back Bomani “D’mite” Armah and video director, Tyree Dillihay, into a corner. It’s another fine example of what happens when mainstream media incites rather than providing insight.

(check out the “Read a Book” video below the drop) (more…)

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