Two purveyors of soulful Hip-Hop have teamed up again to release a second mixtape celebrating the place where it all started — the Bronx.  The mix features a few surprise guests including Uncle Murda andTalib Kweli.  Scroll down to stream the mix or click the image to download the mix from datpiff.com.

Dru was attacked on the street by a stranger with a hammer at 10:00 AM the morning of 07/11 in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. It’s a miracle that Dru is alive, and even more so that there’s no brain damage at all. But there’s bad news as well. Although his right eye is in perfect shape, Dru is going to lose his left eye. The damage was too severe to repair
Dru will need multiple operations to repair the damage to his eye socket and to prep the eye socket for a prosthesis.

Please help cover Dru’s recovery and living costs while he heals from this terrible crime. I have donated myself and I am providing the link for you to donate: http://www.gofundme.com/3l62ig

They have raised 24k of the 25k goal so far! Let us keep it going.

xoxo,
Chevy

Tonight vinyl lovers can party the night away at the Mobile Mondays party at Bowery Electric. Tonight’s featured DJs include Mr. Walt and DJ Evil Dee of the legendary Beatminerz. Address: 327 Bowery at 2nd Street in downtown Manhattan.

If you are in Brooklyn, now is the time to hurry over to Wingate Field to catch Rakim and Big Daddy Kane live. The show is free!

The 31st annual Martin Luther King Jr. Concert Series performances are held Monday nights 7:30 pm at Wingate Field, which is located on Brooklyn Avenue between Rutland Road and Winthrop Street opposite Kings County Hospital.

In the Spring of 2013, I produced an art event featuring paintings by TTK, Sam Woolley and Klashwon. The opening began with conversations about the paintings and turned into a musical celebration of the artists and their work. Watch the video below to find out more!

The killing of Trayvon Martin, the Central Park 5 film and the new Oscar Grant film precipitated a conversation in my family. The conversation was about injustice and skin color. Melanin, while treated as a negative attribute in many places, is actually a wonderful thing. It allows people like me to enjoy the sun. Why is it demonized? The economics and power grabs behind the stratification of humans has a longer history than I can recount in this post. The conversation we had with my little cousin was much shorter than the history of skin color politics. Short, but effective.

Mookie is my cousin. Mookie is not my cousin’s real name. Mookie is a term of endearment bestowed upon my cousin at a time when she was padding around the ground and banging pots and pans. Now she is tall, brown, curvy and wide eyed about the world. I attended her birthday recently and was moved by a speech she wrote. In it, my cousin thanked individuals in her family tree for various lessons they taught her. Her party reminded me of the Kwanzaa celebrations my family had in the past. Her speech resembled affirmations related to community, family, education and self-determination. My cousin was ready for a new honest conversation.

Her mom and I discussed questions of skin color politics. Mookie described an incident in which she was walking with three friends after school. A man approached them and directed a question at the three young ladies lacking great amounts of melanin.

“Are you three ok?”

Puzzled, the three little ladies told the man that they were fine. “Are you sure?” the man said, looking sideways at my cousin. The girls repeated their answer, grabbed my cousin by the wrist and hurried off. My cousin. My little Mookie said, “I know he asked them if they were fine because he saw me as a threat walking down the street with my friends.”

Stunned at her clarity about the situation, I gently inquired further. I quickly learned that as a child on the accelerated math and science track in the suburbs, Mookie had become familiar with skin color politics and hatred at least 3 years ago.

“Oh honey,” I said.  “Am I too late?”

“It’s never too late for honest conversation, Chevon. I love you.”

In my family, love always wins.

——

While injustice in this case and others is appalling and can leave people feeling helpless- I always look for a positive move I can make locally, Any positive movement is better than nothing.  If you are moved to do so, choose from the options below, or add your own thoughts and ideas in the comments section.

• Donate or become a mentor for a young man
• Donate or become a mentor for a young lady
• Find a Trayvon Rally