Unfortunately, there are only a few more weeks before Social Capital goes on its year-long hiatus until next summer. Luckily for all those young progressives who still need a heads up as to where to get some culture and entertainment, DC is a "fusicology city."

Brooklyn loves Ms. Hill—at least, the old Ms. Hill.

Last night, in her first solo performance in Brooklyn, NY, Lauryn Hill played a free concert to over 10,000 eager fans.  Lately, Lauryn has been plagued with reports of erratic, if not downright unprofessional, performances.  At a recent concert in Oakland, CA, a reporter from the San Jose Mercury News declared that “calling it a fiasco would be an insult to fiascos everywhere.”  Similarly, her European tour was derided by journalists and fans alike—unrecognizable arrangements of her hits, odd new material, incessant vocal problems, a bizarre and arrogant on-stage manner.

At last night’s show in Crown Heights, Lauryn fulfilled most of these complaints.  But she also played an incredible, amazing, high-energy show that I am truly thankful I got to witness.  For free.

Warning: not serious blog post, neon colors and loud noises to follow. I'm going going back back to Cali Cali on Friday to visit my brother in LA and get my eat on in Tehrangeles, Koreatown, and Little Armenia. If there's one thing my brother and I do together besides eat food whose names we can't pronounce and make fun of hipsters shopping for $600 limited edition kicks at Undefeated, it's listen to M.I.A.

The NAACP's Detroit chapter held a symbolic funeral for the N-word yesterday.  Participants in the mock funeral, including chapter president Reverend Wendell Anthony, Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, and Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick marched through downtown Detroit in an attempt to "put [the word] to rest."

Organizers of the funeral stated that the goal of the funeral was to raise awareness among communities about the use of destructive and hurtful language of all kinds.  As Derek Blackman of the Detroit Fellowship Church said, "It's about self-respect. We need to throw all of this language in the garbage can -- all of this racist, sexist and misogynistic language."

The birthplace of hip hop is being threatened by creeping gentrification. The owners of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, the Bronx apartment building where DJ Kool Herc first spun the 1s and 2s in 1973, plan to opt out of the Mitchell-Lama program which gives landlords tax breaks and subsidized mortgages in exchange for renting to low- and moderate-income tenants. In doing so, the owners will be able to charge higher rents and possibly reap more profit on the open market, but this might change the character of the building where a culture that has spread around the world was born.

PRINCETON, NJ--Princeton University greeted 400 men and women on Saturday, March 3, all attendees of the second annual State of Black Men in America Conference. It was an unusually warm day in Princeton, New Jersey and the mood matched the weather. Chris Chaney, president of the Black Men's Awareness Group (BMAG) and a central organizer of the conference charcterized the day's energy as "inspiring and empowering". "It was a 'we-can-do-it' atmosphere, " Chaney recalled. The conference was sponsored through the efforts of BMAG, a a Princeton University organization committed to issues concerning African-American men on campus and in the world at-large. Chaney is a member of the class of 2007 and will be graduating this May. He collaborated with five of his undergraduate colleagues to coordinate the event.

Well, CPAC managed to gather all four of the black people at this Conference and put them on stage together, for "Conservative Solutions for Urban America."

All the usual gripes and outrage of the more conservative contingency of the black middle class were heard--we can't blame problems on the color of our skin, we must live now and forget the history of oppression, BET is ruining our youth, etc. "Antebellum rednecks have got nothing on MTV and BET, the minstrel show that is pumped into our children's brains daily," said the Congress for Racial Equality's Niger Innis. 

Some of these complaints represent common ground with people on the left--for instance, when Campus Progress hosted a showing of "Beyond Beats and Rhymes" in Los Angeles not three weeks ago, the panel including "conscious" rapper Talib Kweli spent much time ridiculing BET's founder Bob Johnson, who Innis maligned by name at this CPAC panel. In fact, Innis even critiqued Fox News for focusing their (albeit negative) coverage on figures like P. Diddy, and the media in general for presenting a warped and narrow vision of black people, as indication of their totally skewed priorities. "We care more about Anna Nicole Smith and what Britney is shaving or not wearing than a war being fought by our young people." I certainly couldn't argue with that.

When they did choose to focus on the past is where they lost me. Mychal Massie, of the National Center for Public Policy: "Slavery is over." Sure. "The civil rights struggle is over." Okay, maybe. Then, "we went from Martin Luther King to Superfly." Weird...what happened to the Black Panthers? Apparently they were part of a "militant movement that glorified a motherland that never existed" and ridiculed Martin Luther King. Not surprisingly, there was no mention of how King did get more aggressive and spoke out against the Vietnam War at the end of his life. "We went from Duke Ellington to Snoop Dogg," and, most interestingly, "we went from Shirley Chisolm to Barack Obama." Did I miss something? I guess Obama is a lamentable candidate because his father is from Africa, which doesn't exist.

I wanted to give everyone a heads-up and a STRONG encouragement to watch Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes tonight.  The documentary is making its TV premiere on the PBS Independent Lens series.  You can find what time it's on in your area here.

For those who aren't familiar with the documentary, Byron Hurt, a self-professed hip-hop head, explores the themes of hyper-masculinity, homophobia, misogyny and materialism in hip-hop music and culture as it exists today.  In my opinion, Mr. Hurt challenges the viewer, the listener and the consumer to critically analyze the intersections of creativity with capitalism, manifesting in some of the destructive/oppressive overtones of commercialized hip-hop today.

I have had the opportunity to watch this film twice now, and in the way I believe it was meant to be seen--once during a free screening organized by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (where the director and Toni Blackman, one of the emcees featured in the film, appeared on a panel) in Bedstuy, and once during a meeting of a radical artists' collective I am a part of here in NYC.  I know that Campus Progress had a glitzy event in L.A. recently, with a screening and a star-studded panel discussion, which is wonderful--but I think Mr. Hurt's intention was to spark discussion in the community on a much more grounded level, beginning with people talking about these issues in their living rooms and in basements of community centers (if you want to hold a screening for your school or organization, go here).  But in the end, it's just important that people see it.  I hope you all will tonight.

Wednesday's Philidelphia Inquirer featured a story entitled "Racist Fad Feeds off Rap's Decay", alleging an increasing trend of racially provocative hip-hop themed parties on college campuses.

"You know, they stencil on some tattoos, wear a do-rag, sport a grill, even pad their backsides for an exaggerated look. Flash a gang sign or two and guzzle a 40 out of a paper bag for added effect. And if they really want to get into character? They wear blackface! Oh, the fun."

 The blackface seems to refer to isolated incidents rather than a growing trend, but as hip-hop has become the music of choice at college parties, the accompanying themes (and white attendees) are treading into controversial territory. The students in question appear either ignorant of or unconcerned with the racial implications, with some apparently defending the mockery as flattery-by-imitation. Still, mainstream hip-hop deserves its share of the blame.

This Tuesday, I traveled to L.A. with David Halperin (Director of Campus Progress) and Keisha Senter (Speakers Bureau Manager) to attend the Campus Progress L.A. film screening and discussion of Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, a hard-hitting look at the portrayal of masculinity in hip-hop and how it particularly relates to misogyny and homophobia. The director, Byron Hurt, uses on-the-ground footage, such as spitting battles on the courtyard to BET's Spring Bling, and interviews with artists including Busta Rhymes, Talib Kweli, Mos Def and De La Soul. Following the screening was a very in-depth (and rather star-studded) discussion moderated by Professor Regina Freer (of Occidental College), with  Byron Hurt (the director), Keith Brown (Executive Vice-President of BET), recording artists Talib Kweli, M-1 (of Dead Prez fame) and Yo-Yo. There were well over 400 people attending the screening and panel discussion; the theater was filled to capacity with an overflow room showing the film on a television for those we couldn't accommodate inside.

The film was great; Hurt offers his perspective as a fan of hip-hop who is disappointed with the way hip-hop culture is portrayed in the media and examines why violence and sexually explicit lyrics are perpetuated by young men. He picks apart mainstream music outlets, including BET.  He questions major artists like Busta and 50 Cent on their view of homosexuality and why a man must be “manly” to succeed in hip-hop, and juxtaposes their answers with younger men who are auditioning for a record deal or just rapping with one another on the street.  You leave the film riled up – in a good way – to challenge and break the cycle; is it the media, the consumers or the artists that should be questioning why women are sex objects in rap videos? 

After the jump – more on the panel discussion and some pictures from SoCal.