hiphopmusic.com:

Sean Bell's family speaks from the G-Unit offices..

I may be cynical about the politics but no matter what happens from here on in, our kids will never again have to wonder if they can really do it.

Rik Cordero's official video for Nas "Be A Nigger Too," and lyrics below. I like the song a little better after giving it some time, and Cordero's vid is solid as usual.

"I am Sean Bell." This is kinda crazy. And scary. We don't see what led up to this, but it's hard to imagine what made it necessary to randomly whip the gun out without identifying himself..

In case you missed it elsewhere.. everybody knows my main blog is here now, right?
references:
young buck wiretap
jim jones interview
bun b interview

Ouch.

link

Jacob Arabov, better known as "Jacob the Jeweler," is known for selling jewelry to celebrities ranging from hip-hop stars to Rudy Giuliani to Victoria Beckham. But he won't sell anything to anyone for quite some time. WWD just reported he's been sentenced to 30 months in prison!

...He will also pay a fine of $2 million in a sentence handed down today by U.S. district court judge Avern Cohn in Detroit.

Arabov, 42, was arrested on June 15, 2006, at his flagship on East 57th Street on charges of laundering more than $270 million in narcotics proceeds for a Detroit-based drug ring called the Black Mafia Family.

I see this happen even around the Yuppie West Side where I rest at.. what is it about fruit stands that gets cops heated?

Latino Radical Hip Hoppers Rebel Diaz Attacked By the NYPD
vivir latino

Last Thursday, independent, radical, revolutionary, activist Hip Hoppers Rodstarz and G1, two brothers known musically and in the movement as Rebel Diaz, were walking in the Bronx, NYC when they witnessed an all too common occurrence. Police officers from the 41st Precinct were in the middle of a sting against street vendors, aggressively confiscating the fruit and vegetables of a street vendor. What happened next was a mix of the sadly uncommon and the everyday threat that is faced in many of our communities. Rodstarz and G1 didn't walk by quickly or quietly, watching their extended community being attacked. They approached the officers to ask why the vendor was being treated in that manner and asked for their badge numbers. The police, who aren't exactly keen on the idea of being monitored by the very same community they allegedly serve, turned their aggressions on the duo. After beating them and arresting them in front of over a dozen witnesses, they were taken to the 41st Precinct.

Uh yeah, because Nader has always made addressing POC issues a priority..? There are numerous places where I wish Obama spoke louder (and leaned further left), but these communities Nader says Obama is neglecting are basically the same ones I've usually felt Nader was neglecting..

Nader: Obama 'talking white'
link

"There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American," Nader said. "Whether that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We'll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards..."

...Nader said he is not impressed with Obama and that he does not see him campaigning often enough in low-income, predominantly minority communities where there is a "shocking" amount of economic exploitation...