Day: June 17, 2009

The Politics of Hip Hop

Sure. You can rap about politics (ask Chuck D.), but can you make anyone listen? Rappers have been dabbling in the social relevance of politics since “The Message” with mixed results. For every valiant effort at voter registration and education, there’s some troglodyte in a “Vote Or Die” T-shirt who isn’t even registered to vote.

The Snob is a member of the much maligned hip hop generation (as I remember when it was actually good!), so here’s The Black Snob’s top ten moments in the conjunction between politics and hip hop.

More after the jump.

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On Wright and Wrong (Guest Post)

A letter to Rev. Jeremiah Wright by JD McCallum:

Dear Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright,

I originally was going to write about people and their short memories.

Remember when Black Chicagoans were so proud to be “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian.” If you had cojones and integrity, and weren’t part of the Machine, you were at Trinity.

I remember, Rev, that you were so popular that Trinity went from something like 80 to thousands of members in a number of years under your leadership. Truthfully, you did it by calling out government leaders, making correlations between Biblical times and present day.

You, Reverend Wright, were the most articulate voice of reason espousing what irked your people in the Chicagoland area. Bar none.

More after the jump.

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Tavis Smiley and the “Ghetto Loans” Controversy (Guest Post)

Genma Holmes is investigating the precarious relationship between Tavis Smiley and Wells Fargo, sponsor for Smiley’s State of the Black Union (SOTBU). This post is the third in a series of posts about Smiley written by Holmes, available to read on her site Genma Speaks.

By Genma Holmes

Everyone is in uproar about Wells Fargo employees calling loans to black mortgage holders “ghetto loans” and the disdain they showed for the customers they made the most profit from. But the media, especially black media, has been very silent about the role Tavis Smiley played in helping stack this ill fated deck of cards that has plagued the black community in several major cities.

More after the jump.

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Because We’re Broke. (But We Have A Plan!)

We’re down to the last bottle, but we’re not out.Dear readers,

It has been the most awesome almost two years with The Black Snob. We’ve raked in more than 1.5 million page views, nearly a million visitors, gotten ourselves on Nightline, gone to Harvard, pulled off an amazingly successful East Coast Tour thanks to Dot (pictured above … kinda) and written tons of funny and poignant articles about pop and politics.

Alas, all is not perfect in Snobland. Myself, your editor Danielle B. and Dot, my erstwhile business partner, are ready to take the site to the next level, but … ahem … are lacking in the funds department.

More after the jump.

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