hiphopmusic.com:

I'm running my own personal phone bank, calling rappers to talk to them about voting. Thankfully Posdnuos didn't need any convincing:

• Pos on voting (small mp3)

• Scienz of Life on voting (mp3)

Wise Intelligent from Poor Righteous Teachers gave me a more cynical outlook on voting, and this year's attempts to bring out the "hip-hop vote."

• Wise Intelligent on not voting (mp3)

Dr. Dre's latest protege courts yet another beef by placing himself squarely in the "anybody but Bush" camp. Watch out homey, Yukmouth ain't got nothing on Karl Rove.

• The Game on voting (mp3)

Unbelievable. As it stands now, this played out almost exactly as I envisioned in my nightmare post. Except New Mexico and maybe Nevada piled on for Bush.

"The youth vote didn't show up" is already established as the dominant narrative. Presumably because "the candidate just sucked" goes without saying.

*shrug*

I really don't have anything to say right now. The likelihood that dark days to come may spark a new "conscious era" in hip-hop is providing little solace for me at the moment.

Next time you see a post in here, it will be from north of the border.

So yeah. I just started crying in the middle of the supermarket. Which is embarrassing.

This is difficult to cope with because I want so badly to believe that people are good, to have faith in humanity. But it is impossible for me to understand or respect the choices this country has made. I've never felt more alienated from this country and its people.

I guess that is both the blessing and the curse of living in NYC, we are so sheltered from the reality of America. It's almost like my thoughts of moving to Canada are moot, because for all intents and purposes I'm already an embittered expatriate. Looking at this country from the outside wondering what the hell is going on. And I hate feeling that way, feeling so alienated and so judgmental towards masses of people. But how can I not? How could this really be what America is?

A lot of us are simply refusing to accept the result. Telling ourselves "they stole another one," "it was fixed" and so on. We need to stop that. This is real.

Sure, they would have stolen this one if they had to. But they didn't have to, because this vote truly did reflect how Americans think and feel in most of this country. If we are going to change that reality, or even survive it, we need to start being real with ourselves about it.

Just like the essence of white privilege is the luxury of being able to pretend racism doesn't exist, living in our liberal NY oasis puts us in a privileged position. It's so easy to just put our heads in the sand, and keep telling ourselves this can't be real, that we don't have to believe what we see. But there are millions of Americans who do not have that luxury. Eleven states in this country just passed laws confirming that homosexuals are second-class citizens. The gay Americans who live in those states do not have the luxury of telling themselves this isn't real.

We owe it to to everyone like them, and to ourselves, to let this be a wake-up call. To start getting real about the country we live in, and figure out how to change it.

I just wish I had some idea how we do this.

Had to put something special together for the man:

• Shimmy Ya Porkpie Hat

(please don't link directly to file)

It's hard to start blogging again when all the news is stuff you don't want to talk about.

I am sick to death of this cancerous thug ethos that has plagued the culture for so long. And as I asked in someone else's blog, why are Suge Knight or his people ever invited to anything nowadays, besides a retirement home? They've always been a disgrace to hip-hop, and at this point they haven't put out a relevant record in years, so why is anyone still tolerating their presence?

Going away for the holiday, after which regular blogging will resume. Enjoy your Native American Memorial Tryptophan Coma!

In the meantime, has anyone in blogville already tied together how race plays into both the Piston fan riot and the Terrell Owens/Nicolette Sheridan puritan freakout? And into coverage of Artest and Owens in general? And how pundits keep blaming the riot on something they call the "hip-hop mindset?"