I just noticed The Morning News Digest, "A weekly round-up of books (Mondays), mp3s (Wednesdays), and videos (Fridays)." This is my 18 year-old self's internet holy grail. My 30 year-old self is a little overwhelmed with a "books to read" list fifty titles long and an impossibly large mp3 collection, but this is still a fantastic resource.
Now, if there's one thing I love, it's seeing white people bitch about black people bitching about white peopleI love this too, and I'm white. Anyway, if it's not the most insightful discussion in the world, it's spirited. Hip-hop was a huge part of my life in 1998, and I identify with the sense of lost hope that O-dub is feeling. I must have played Manifesto 500 times; I literally burned through 4 copies of that vinyl. I definitely consider myself still a part of the culture, even though I'm mostly just a bedroom dj now.
Stingy Kids on the difficulty of selecting the Queens poet laureate:
Though Simmons argued that most of his rap songs begin as silent lyrics, he failed to secure the position. "I don't know if Queens is ready for a rapper as a poet," he said. But Parks's own work engages the different modes in which poetry is made public these days.
Ishle may not be a "rapper," but she's an innovator in her own right. Simmons has his Sprite commercials and fame for life, and quite frankly Ishle is the superior rhymer. No disrespect to Reverend Run, one of the founders, but it's time to let the new generation shine.
The New Jersey State Legislature has cut funding for
the state poet laureate position, largely in response to Amiri Baraka's political stance on 9/11.
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