Did anyone know that the Hip Hop Summit Action Network had its own awards? No? Anyone? They call them the “Action Awards.” They’re shaped like shooting star. And it’s their fifth annual awards event. Hmm. Still not ringing a bell? Well they had their awards last night in NYC honoring Snoop Dogg (why?), Ciara (again, why?), Doug E. Fresh, Chris Lighty, Jim Jones and Mellody Hobson.

Like the blinged baby offspring of the NAACP Image Awards, the event is a fund raiser for HSAN’s non-profit work. For those who don’t know, HSAN is the group founded by everyone’s favorite hip hop airhead Russell Simmons and activist Dr. Benjamin Chavis, who’s job I’ve always assumed was to lend HSAN some credibility – like how George W. used Colin Powell in the first four years of his presidency. EURweb.com claims the group “utilize(s) the power of hip hop for positive social change. Each of the Action Award recipients has made an outstanding contribution to the empowerment of others and to their communities.”
On HSAN’s Web site the group has the motto “Taking Back Responsibility.” I’m going to try to hold back the chuckles on that one. I don’t mean to pick on HSAN but Barack Obama kind of blew them out the back door in the race to get young people to register to vote. And other than their voter registration drives, various summits to heal “rifts” in the rap community and occasional defense of the “poets**,” I honestly don’t know what the hell they do. But they had an event last night where they gave out some awards for charity work.

** As a bonus, I’m posting one of my favorite rebukes to Russell Simmons’ defense of the “poets,” as in hip hop like Lil’ Jon and Fiddy Cent’s right to call me a “bitch” and a “ho” in a metaphorical sense. There is also a reference to “reality flavored cheeseburgers” on the clip. It was the greatest hip hop criticism piece I’d ever seen from Jay at illdoctrine.com, who I totally wanted to marry after he said this.
It originally aired during the Imus debacle last year.
Anything associated with Russell Simmons gets an immediate side-eye from me. RS is in the business of making $$$ period. He cares about nothing else, though he pays lip service to many things.
OMG! That guy is great! I totally love <A HREF="
REL=”nofollow”>If Bill O’Reilly Was A Rapper