P sits down with hip-hop scholar Michael Eric Dyson while on his book tour to discuss a pivotal moment in the beef with Jay-Z.
Prodigy’s new book My Infamous Life is out now.
Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet classic that inspired revolutionaries everywhere. Case in point, check out the new video from London-based crew Broken Dialect. We go from a Spike Lee directed march in 1990 to a guerrilla video shoot in the middle of UK protests about Libya today.
To check them out more Broken Dialect you can hit up their Myspace page or you can see more of their videos here.
These guys are brilliant.
GE Returns Billions to Public…Not
USA Today, AP fall for US Uncut ploy; GE stock loses billions
Washington, DC - US Uncut, a burgeoning grassroots movement pressuring corporate tax cheats to pay their fair share, posted today a fake GE press release announcing that they would return their illegitimate (but legal) $3.2 billion tax refund, and that they would lobby to close the sort of corporate tax loopholes that had allowed them to skip taxes in the first place. Several major media outlets, including USA Today, ran the story as true. (Here is a link to the original USA Today story; here is the first article debunking the release.)
US Uncut quickly reacted with another release pretending to praise GE for this entirely unpredictable, unlikely, and in fact impossible act.
“At a time when working families are being asked to accept massive cuts nationwide, this action showed another way the world could work,” said US Uncut spokesperson Carl Gibson. “For a brief moment people believed that the biggest corporate tax dodger had a change of heart and actually did the right thing. But the only way anything like this is really going to happen is if we change the laws that allow corporate tax avoidance in the first place.”
In the period the hoax was believed, GE’s stock plunged by .6% (far more than the value of the supposed return), then quickly recovered as soon as it became apparent the press had been duped. “Obviously, GE can’t possibly be expected to do the right thing voluntarily; their stock would keep plunging,” noted Gibson. “That’s why we must change the law.”
“GE’s tax avoidance is unpatriotic, it’s undemocratic, it’s unfair,” said Andrew Boyd, a US Uncut spokesperson. “It might be legal, but that’s only because GE has used its money and lobbying influence to buy the loopholes they’re now taking advantage of.”
Go to the Yes Men site here to check out more of their hijinks and to support.
“Royalty, heroism and the streets” – Jean-Michel Basquiat when asked what his art was about.
PBS is airing a documentary as part of its Independent Lens series on the man considered by many to be the founding father of the modern street art movement. Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child is built around an interview done by director Tamra Davis twenty years ago. Do yourself a favor and watch or DVR this documentary about Jay-Z’s favorite artist.
Told through interviews with his fellow artists, friends and lovers …, the film recounts Basquiat’s lightning-quick ascension from street kid to art world star. In the gritty, crime-ridden city that was New York in the late 1970s, artists, punk rockers, and writers flourished in the grimy oasis of the East Village. Among them was Basquiat, a Haitian/Puerto Rican graffiti artist from Brooklyn, who covered the city with the tag SAMO. In 1981, he put paint on canvas for the first time, and by 1983 he was an artist with rock star status. In 1985, he and Andy Warhol became close friends.
This makes today a great day.
here’s the trailer for the long ass video thing. and as they say in Uruguay “nothing silly”.
Pre-order Hot Sauce Committee Part Two at the Beastie’s blog here.
