I didn’t start out as a John Legend fan because I found him to be awkward & not well developed in his stage presence when Kanye first introduced him to us all. I was tired of hearing “Ordinary People” & watching him perform it on every show sitting at the piano , plus I was beyond annoyed with him when I saw the video for the “Show Me Campaign” at a time when we as Africans were questioning the imapct & worthiness of numerous NGO’s & the global image of Africa that many of these NGO’s were using to be able to fill their coiffeurs to help us poor Africans who just could never help ourselves. I was unapologetically upset with John Legend’s words & depiction of Ghana through the “Show Me Campaign” as he said “There’s no comparison between America & here when it comes to the extremeness of the poverty here..it is not even close..” All I could think was REALLY?, has he traveled through some of the backwoods of Mississippi & other parts of the USA & seen the conditions of no running water & the high level of poverty there? Does he even understand that we Africans have our own traditions of self sustenance that doesn’t need the government in Ghana to set up soup kitchens & a welfare system in order for us to be our own brothers & sisters keepers? When someone is hungary they can go to their neighbor/family & will be fed because no matter what anyone says about Africa we do see ourselves as family & have a long tradition of making sure one another is fed no matter how little we may have to share- All of this was being taken for granted in telling a one-sided story of Ghana & many African nations who are bombarded with NGO’s taking the place of governments that refuse to serve their people & being plagued with the images & words of helplessness & hopelessness that does not allow Africans the mental freedom & opportunities to do for ourselves as entrepreneurs who have always historically shown our resilience in making do without fear!

My friend from San Francisco, a 6′8 plus, White ex-baller who probably knows more about & enjoys Black Soul, R&B music more than most people I know, came for a visit one day back to New York & he forced me to give John Legend a second listen by playing me his full CD & leaving it behind for me to consume it on my own time. I was also doing a deal with one of my clients & Mr. Legend’s record label at the time, so I was gifted with free tickets to go to see him at Radio City Music Hall in New York. I all of a sudden realized Damn! this dude is great & why the hell wasn’t the radio playing some of these songs like “Live It Up” & “Stay With You“, which showed his amazing retro soulfulness that he has now recaptured in a full album. This new album is amazing at a time when we need to put the education, consciousness & words back into the music because that’s what the youth & the majority of the people are listening to. I have watched John Legend grow & develop not only in his stage show, but also within himself as a man & as a human being in not only talking about it, but also being about it! John Legend has become a true leader of our time in his commitment to education & reviving & redefining a music industry that has gone back to its activist roots a la Marvin Gaye, John Lennon, Nina Simone, Donny Hathaway, Joan Baez, Carly Simon, Aretha Franklin & so many others before him. Support this new project -Wake Up! by John Legend & The Roots because this is right for the times & we must all take time to STOP! LOOK! & LISTEN!

This is why hip-hop is not dead. From Audio Two in 1987 to 2010 -Top Billin’ still gets the crowd live & screaming “Go Brooklyn”. That’s what classics are made of.

“MC am I people call me Milk ..When I’m bustin up a party I feel no guilt..Gizmo’s cuttin, up for the ..Suckers that’s, down with meeee!!The One of us, that’s how I feel..To be down you must appeal..To the Two, we’re rated R..We’re gifted, and we’re going far..Down the road, to the bank..While I’m here I’d like to thank..Mom and dad, they knew the time ..Gizmo’s scratching Milk Dee’s rhyming.Milk is chillin, Giz is chillin..What more can I say? Top billin..”

By now everyone across the globe must have heard the name Fela Anikulapo Kuti, AKA Fela, AKA Black President. If you have not then maybe you are too young or just stuck under a rock. There is a new revival of Fela’s music, his words, his teachings & his revolutionary spirit springing up all around the world, cutting across boundaries of nations, race, class, gender & age. There are books being released, CD’s in celebration of his music by today’s artists whom he has influenced, parties around the world celebrating the blend of hi-life, funk & Jazz which created the beautiful powerful sound of Afro Beat, a broadway show on his life & music, art exhibits, countless documentaries and even classes in Universities based on the life & sound of the incomparable Fela Anikulapo Kuti. The spirit of Fela is alive & flourishing & it could not have come at a better time. The injustice, corrupt governments, reprehensible poverty in nations with abundant resources & the infiltration of new colonialism in the form of the demonstration of crazy,known as democracy, which he spoke & fought against, seems to be reaping its head everywhere- begging to be exposed & cut down by the many spawns & M.O.P soldiers of Fela spread throughout the world.

Fela Anikulapo Kuti is Africa’s champion, taking the baton from great Pan-Africanists & revolutionaries like Dr. Kwame Nkrumah toward finishing the race & battle for Africa’s true freedom in self empowerment, self sufficiency, self awareness, self preservation & finally releasing the chains of colonialism through continental equality & unity. Fela saw that Africa’s biggest problem in moving forward & achieving its contintental greatness was the silence, poverty, lack of education & ignorance of the people -so he created a movement of the people through the call & power of music.

Modern day Felas like Nneka, Wyclef Jean,  Dead Prez, Blitz the Ambassador, Sena, Antibales, Wunmi, Black Prophet, K’naan, Stephen Marley, Wanlov the Kubolor, Damian Junior Gong Marley, The Blk Jks, Mos Def, The Roots & of course the direct heirs, Seun & Femi Kuti amongst many others globally, are carrying the revolutinary mantle of Fela by showing the world that music is still a weapon to be used for the good of the people- waking up & raising up nations & the world- a never ending MOP- Movement of the people.

There is a new “Back to Africa” movement emerging globally, whether it’s big businesses seeking resources in Africa or Africans & Diasporans returning to their roots & finding a new sense of pride in being African. Fela’s movement of the people is back again with the fire burning hotter than ever, ushering in a new anti- zombie decade where information is power, knowledge is eternal & music is the weapon of choice!

PBS is true Global Fusion -Global Classroom- Support PBS & Public TV! Watch Black President Jan. 25th,2010 @10pm (http://www.pbs.org/opb/soundtracks/stories/black/) & Go to see Fela on Broadway in NY (http://www.felaonbroadway.com/)!

“There ’s so much hypocrisy & lies in education -we are not taught about what life is- education does not deal with the essence of life, tradition & culture & all those things that existed in Africa before that made the continent so pure & the envy of the rest of the world…now everyone wants to be European or American….America says jump, the whole world jumps- when America says shut up the whole world shuts up- when America doesn’t like you, you are finished….You say I don’t Take Risk?” Femi Kuti

“Music Is The Weapon of The Future..If You play With Music You will Die Young”

Wake up world- the spirit of Fela lives globally beyond genres, borders & styles- Music is the weapon of choice for the new decade of change agents & global leaders! Let’s get Globally Fused!

Watching VH1’s Hip-Hop Honors honoring the 25 year legacy of Hip-Hop made me remember the time when this new style of music that we called our own was created completely as an underground hood style of music, where I would have to sneak into clubs or hope to catch a good block party because it was rare that I could hear it on the radio, let alone see it in its full culture on a music channel on TV. A time when the revolutionary evolution of Black & Brown people in New York created a new music genre that we had no idea would permeate throughout the world as a global culture.

My highlights were The Roots, Public Enemy, Mary J. Blige & Method Man & the crazy ass, always keeping it real & hood, Reggie Noble. I never thought that I would see DMX & EPMD rock a stage again, but that is the power of Def Jam & hip-hop, which can always bring us back together and put out the DEFest JAM! It took me back to a time when we were just starting to truly own our power & seeing our reach as a people with a voice behind the power of a thumping drum & bass, taken from those before us & cut up to create a new sound that gave props to the magic of a DJ that would move crowds.

The Hip-Hop Honors honoring of the 25 years of Def Jam also got me back to thinking how we have continuously waited throughout history for the White man to put us on as a people by packaging & selling our own creations to ourselves & the world. I believe that we are one world & one race of human beings, so when we work together to create history it’s in the natural order of humanity, but when there is an imbalance of profits, bosses & workers then we really need to look within, examine & find better solutions rather than just complaining. It is baffling to me that 25 years later this same formula still exists. I just read an article the other day on the penetration of hip-hop in Africa/African hip-hop & its refining, defining, branding & selling to the world thru the Nomadic Wax record label, founded by yet again another White man named Ben Herson (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8286310.stm) . Don’t get me wrong because I applaud him for his brilliance, business mind & recognizing that there is money to be made in a missing genre in Hip-Hop, but why couldn’t it be Jay Z (the biggest entrepreneur in & of global Hip-Hop) or an African recognizing, refining, defining, branding & selling our own creation? Are we that lost or set in always being the workers complaining about working hard & never becoming the boss who reaps the profits, when the chance & opportunity is right in front of us?

I am so tired of hearing people of color & particularly Black people constantly speaking of the White man not giving them a chance instead of recognizing that the chance is there for us all as human beings , but it is up to us as a people & as individuals to take the chance & sculpt it into what we wish, deem, dream & manifest it to be as leaders and everyday people. We can’t seek the White man to give us a chance then complain about it manifesting. If you have something & there is someone who can make it better or more profitable then why not forge a good business relationship with them & collectively work to make it a success? Would hip-hop as we know it have been possible without Rick Rubin, a young Jewish -American student at NYU (my alma mater-Go violets) who had the audacity of hope, work ethic, creativity & know how to seek a partnership with Russell Simmons, who he knew could bring the product to the table & legitimize the selling of what was brewing in the the urban ghettos of New York?

We celebrate Def Jam as the catalyst that took hip-hop, a creation of Black urban young people, to the global arena with the leadership of 3 Jews & 1 Black man (Rick Rubin, Lyor Cohen, Julie Greenwald and Russell Simmons) handling the business with a majority Black workers/creators. Hip-Hop thru the push of Def Jam became a genre that in 25 years has penetrated every part of the globe & everyday life. Just think about that for a minute because even today the business & true ownership of hip-hop is in that same warped imbalance & 25 years later we are still complaining about not getting our just due when without the artists there will be no business of Hip-Hop or Def Jam, so who is really to blame for the imbalance? We can’t always wait for the chance to be put on or get our just due! If a young Jewish student can create a conglomerate from his dorm room by refining, defining, branding & selling a creation from a ghetto, which he is not even from, then why can’t those who are the creators refine, define, brand & sell their own creation & cut out the middle man in a game of profiteering & capitalism? As the saying goes “God helps those who help themselves”.

He argues that Africa is the true “birthplace of hip-hop”. “It traveled through the transatlantic slave trade to the US, via the Caribbean – that’s what created this culture,” he says. “Hip-hop is the missing connection between the US and Africa. It’s about a conversation within the African Diaspora. There was Creole culture, the blues, jazz, rock’n'roll and it has become hip-hop.” Ben Herson (founder of Nomadic Wax).

Eve should be saying because of hip-hop , Gwenn Stefani had the opportunity to work with her. How we think of ourselves & the level we reach is all in our mind & the words we use to express it! I love Gwenn Stefani because her sound comes from music created by those who I can directly relate to & a familiar sound: ska, reggae, rock n roll & hip-hop – Black Music! Don’t get Twisted!

As 2face Idibia says ” “Remember there’s only 1 race ..the human race..cuz we struggle & hustle & laughing & crying & shout & do it all 2gether..we’re stuck together can not live without each other.. irrespective of ur color, ur religion or political border..all we need is one love”

Black Music is world music because since the days of slavery, everyone who has even 1 drop of Black in them is defined as Black, so the majority of the world is Black- Think about it!

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” Eleanor Roosevelt