Torae - Clap Sh*t Up (ft. Phonte) (Official Music Video)

23 Ways You Could Be Killed If You Are Black in America

Ta-Nehisi Coates

I've been really interested in this guy and EVERYTHING that he has to say. We're also BIG fans of the Loud Speakers Network.

https://soundcloud.com/fanbros/ta-nehisi-coates-vs-fanbrosshow

Kendrick Lamar - The Blacker The Berry

#EnoughSaid

Look, he's back...

I LOVE HIP HOP and John Forte is HIP HOP to me!

No...Really

I saw this today and immediately felt the need to share with EVERYONE. I always feel like I can do more, and today...this is about the best that I can do.

So Thankful

I am SO happy that I was born when I was and got to witness the excitement that WE had when a movie like this came out.

#EarlyDaysOfHipHop

Hoodie Season

we love rocking hoodies, especially while riding our bikes. 

here's a few pics of us....

#boricuamoreno

#crosscolours (it's a comback)

#bkbred (dope hats)

#vinnystyles (they always have heat)

#publicenemy (if you don't know...you should know)

Bike Date

everything about NYC and BROOKLYN is just like a postcard. here are 2 pics from a date down in dumbo a couple of weeks ago. 

RIDE A BICYCLE...dammit

NY Hip Hop Report...

I am so happy that there seems to finally be a discussion in hip hop about the "state of hip hop". I used to get angry and all pissed off when my favorite rapper didn't get a chance on Hot 97 or MTV, but these days it just doesn't matter...kind of.

During this digital age I can find artist, and I stress ARTIST, online and on social media. My new thing is listening to podcasts that are curated with hip hop in mind.  Currently, my favorite podcasts are:

The Combat Jack Show
We have been a fan of Mr. Reggie Osse for quite some time now. He had a DOPE blog called Daily Mathematics and I miss really his work, but the podcast is a great replacement. Seriously, if you love Hip Hop you have to check some of these classic interviews. Shouts to Premium Pete, Dallas Penn, Ben Hameen, Matt Raz, and everyone else that has been a part of the show from the beginning to now.

Shots Fired
A member of the Loud Speaker Network, they sit down and have discussions with non traditional artists (my opinion). I enjoy their banter and they have interesting guests...some of which I have never heard of. Thank you Jeff Weiss & MC Nocando for introducing me to hip hop artists that I probably would never hear of.

The NY Hip Hop Report
This is my new favorite podcast and not a week has gone without me listening.  Manny Faces and his Co-Host Steve Ortiz..."from the Bronx where the people are fresh" have similar sensibilities to me. Manny Faces has petitioned the FCC to take Hot 97 off of the air, AMAZING.

Juan Epstein
Featuring Cipha Sounds and Peter Rosenberg these guys are funny.

#iHEARThiphop

Heartbreak Hotel

Ughh! I can't believe that after years of never missing a BHHF Jay performed this year. I was in Atlanta for work. As Toddy was encapsulated by the likes of Brand Nubian (Fuck You, Lord Jamar), Raekwon, Talib and Buckshot I was navigating through grown ass men with Louis Vuitton Backpacks and matching belts at The W Hotel. Some unidentifiable southern rapper blarred through the lobby DJ's speakers. I scrolled through his instagram- I was SICK. I am not a casual Shawn Carter fan. I love Hov! I was 21 when Reasonable Doubt dropped. It was instant love. Everything about Jay had me- there have been mishaps: The Blue Print 3, but everyone takes an L sometime or another. Todd however does not see my love for Jigga, (he prefers Nas) Whatever! All I know is that if you click on The Reasonable Doubt link your next 54 minutes will be most fucking delightful.

BK Hip Hop Fest...

#jayelectronica

...celebrated their 10th anniversary on July 12th. If you have never been its DOPE and it is not a show for a casual hip hop fan (my humble opinion).  There are no pyrotechnics or wardrobe changes...it's usually just your favorite rappers favorite rappers performing. 

Lex wasn't able to join me this year...ugh...she had to work in Atlanta at the gift show.

There were a bunch of rapper that performed before the "headliners" were set to perform.  

#brandnubian

#buckshot #blackmoon

Early on Saturday morning, @bkhiphopfest sent out a tweet that the lineup times changed. Immediately, I thought Jay Electronica would brings out special guests...ahem Jay Z.  Guess what?

#jayz #hova #rocnation

Keeping up with the....

times.

We're debating if we need to still pay the annual fee to keep this blog active.  We don't write here enough to even justify paying the nominal fee.

While we weigh the pros vs cons...take a look at our instagram & tumblr accounts.

http://himandherinthestuy.tumblr.com/
http://instagram.com/livinginthestuy

Hope to see you on this side soon.
Todd -N- Lex

Do The Right Thing 25th Anniversary

it was a HOT day in bed stuy. so many showed up to support #dtrt25 (check the hashtag on instagram, tumblr, facebook, etc). i mean it was HOT out under the sun.

i always have respected spike lee and how he ALWAYS repped brooklyn. he did it when brooklyn wasn't the "it place to live".

here's a few pics from the day...but the best was when chuck d from public enemy took an #usie with my phone.

these are not the best pics but they are memorable for us.

Getting back to our blog...

my neighbor stopped and said what's up and that he liked our blog. it made me think...we need to get back to it.

here's the first of many more posts to come...#hopefully

here's before the leaves come back onto the trees in #bedstuy

Today I wanted a Christmas Tree. We walked up Throop to Fulton, up Fulton to Nostrand and nothing. Not one lot of Christmas trees, seriously there was one tree on the corner of Nostrand and Gates (you know the "flea market" on the corner and I am pretty sure it came out of someones yard. So we walked to Home Depot (refer to Yelp reviews if you want a laugh). Walking there you realize how much Bed Stuy has really changed... I realized that, Brooklyn is our home. I feel like I used to write all the time to prove it. Now it's just what it is... I feel safe, loved, bothered, nurtured and protective of her. God, life changes so much. Our block has become a desired location. The rent has increased by a few hundred bucks in the surrounding brownstones over the past few years. People have gotten lighter, neighbors have gotten increasingly disturbed and accepting at the same rate and the bodegas on Halsey have both gone organic. What the FUCK? (Truth be told him and I try to eat organic as well) I hate when "organic" is associated with "being white". ....Reeling myself in from a tangent... It seems every Saturday and Sunday a moving truck is on either side of the street. On any of the given days a resident of the block from for the past 30 years moves out and a transplant moves in. And I dare not forget that we are transplants. We just got here before the major gentrification started! As Bed Stuy gets different. I dare not call it better, it still lacks in some major areas. My Christmas List: Bank Of America, a movie theater, ballet school, Apple store, A dope sneaker boutique, a really good hospital, a laundrymat on Throop that isn't dingy as hell with a leaky roof where Mohammed is always pissed at life and the A$AP Rocky look a like hangs out. I know that it will happen it's just taking a long time. Every once in a blue moon I imagine living in the west village where there are 24 hour pharmacies and movie theaters. It'll never happen though. I am a Brooklyn girl!

5 Years. Half a Decade. 1,826 Days

We have now been residing on Hancock Street for 5 years. It's the longest he has ever been in 1 place. It's the the first home I have ever shared with anyone except the kid. 5 years, it's not too long but it seems like a lifetime. Brooklyn was an adjustment. Your "hard" ratio changes from suburb to city. If I was a 9 in the suburbs it makes me a 5 at best here. And then you have to wonder... Do i need to be hard at 37?  The answer clearly is no. I digress. Hancock Street has become this fortress of ours, encapsulated by love. Who knew that a family could eat dinner every night at the kitchen table? That a  place could exist where their most private scribings don't need to be hidden because the respect level for privacy is insurmountable.  I have never gone to bed at night wishing to be another place. Bedford-Stuyvesant is the safest place in the world. My husbands arms are there!

So, when we moved here we didn't have much. Actually, we had almost nothing. In the 5 years since we have acquired much. The longer you live a sober life the better it becomes, we call it the "cash & prizes". A perfect night for us is listening to "The Combat Jack Show" and cooking a ridiculous dinner. Mimicking a dish from one of our favorite Bed Stuy haunts. Scratchbread, Do Or Dine,  the kale salad from Peaches (that I still can't figure out) and just being us. We have taken cooking classes at The Brooklyn Meathook. We have ridden every mile of bike lane in Brooklyn. We have listened to every song every up coming rapper has released and we have become critics of all of it. I swear to God there is a pod cast in our future. If there is a way for us to make money by hashing out what we do and don't like we will be rich one day.

The beauty of Brooklyn, to me is my daughter seeing that people of color do the same shit white people do. We belong to the Hattie Carthan Garden so we can eat local and organic. We shop at Trader Joes. We keep the front of our brownstone clean and flowered up. We thrive. We succeed. We love our neighborhood. We volunteer. We show up.


Brooklyn has been good to us and we have been good to her.  Here is to another 5 years!

1970 Somethin'

I think we've made it clear that Hip Hop is the backdrop in our household.  Of course that isn't to say that we don't listen to other "genres" of music, but there is usually a Hip Hop channel on our Pandora "quickmix" at all times.

Anyway 2012 has been a typical year for Hip Hop, except I think there has been some amazing songs, videos, posse cuts, mixtapes and albums that have come out this years.  Naturally, I cannot post every DOPE song of 2012, but I will add some links at the end of the post.

 We've mourned the loss of some of our pioneers, in 2012, from Jimmy Castor to Adam Yauch to Miss Melodie and Chris Lighty most recently.  I know that Ive left a few folks off of the list, but these names struck a cord with me personally.  I grew up with Hip Hop and we are both at the age when death becomes more familiar.  It's a sad reality and a realistic reality as well.

Which brings me to another sad reality of our music.  I've been watching this Lupe Fiasco/Chief Keef  ridiculousness.  Lupe who has for a minute been a rapper that seems to give a shit about society and it's ills, made a comment about Chief Keef.  This is the second time that I know of that fellow Chicago natives have commented on what this YOUNG rapper represents to our culture and society as a whole.  Naturally, Keith responded with threatening to smack Lupe up.  This is all in the wake of Chicago having one hell of a bloody summer and one of Keith's rivals being killed a couple of days ago.  It would be nice if Chicago's and hip hops Midwesterner artist would come together and make a similar song to Self Destruction.  I can picture it now...Kanye West, Common, Lupe Fiasco, Rhymefest and R. Kelly on the hook...all coming together to raise awareness and to try and stop the violence.  It has to stop.

WOW...now back to some good music (in my humble opinion).
 
DJ Khaled ft. Nas, Scarface, & Premier - "Hip Hop"

Domo Genisis ft. Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples, & Action Bronson - "Elimination Chamber"

Rick Ross ft. Andre 3000 - "Sixteen"

Joey Badass, 1999 Mixtape 

The Space

It was 1997.

Before everyone could have a cell phone, we had beepers. Before text messaging there were fax machines. He used to write silly love notes: LOONEY -n- LEXIE. Smiley faces and other shit that I can't recall and fax it to my office. He worked at Virgin Atlantic Airways in Norwalk CT, where he also lived with his girl and her kid. I was a ticket broker, and lived in Riverside in the suburban projects I grew up in. The fax messages were really my favorite memory of him. Beepers were drama and caused trouble. I would scroll through his on occasion looking for codes hidden in the guise of numbers and letters. Faxing was safe and untraceable, our preferred method of contact at the time.


I watched him all night...“Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See” was the backdrop. He was so fly, so tall, baggy jeans and a sweater. I wanted him but he was unwilling. My game must have been so sloppy. His game was so transparent. He did come home with me though. We played the hand game all night, sometimes we still do. He held his hand to mine and our fingertips touched and danced all night against each other. I have never assumed that was a first for him, although till this day he claims it was. I saw through it but played the game anyway. At that point in both of our lives we were drunks. Drinking more than any one person should!!! With that in mind, apparently he knew who I was. One of his boys, boys baby moms (although he claims he would never talk like that). Tasiya was 3 years old at the time. He was insistent he would not fuck with me. Some boundary he had was not going to be crossed. I am persistent and would not let him go back to his life that night, he was coming  into mine.


The space between here and there.

The next few months were ours. I sized up who my competition was and when I realized it was not his girl, it was her son, she no longer mattered to me. I wanted him and I would have him. Drunken car rides down the west side highway or the FDR were the norm, we chased the party downtown. Spending lots of nights in 205 or 2I’s, a random place on Varrick St, down some stairs. We would get entirely too inebriated and the occasional chick would  get slapped up. We never Hung out together with our crews. The friends who had pushed us together a few months prior were not part of our lives now, when we were together. We were  two separate entities. Nothing else ever seemed to matter. The few months we partied were coming to an end. I wanted more than he could give me. He could not get past my daughter, for that is the reason why he stuck with his old life as long as he did- because of her kid who he really loved. Not for nothing, he was nowhere near ready to settle down and neither was I. What should have been our last night together, he left me crying on the floor of my living room. The venue was changing. I was not invited to the next party. Todd left, and all l had was his Wu-Tang Is Forever double cd, a sweater and a seed that was planted in my heart that would take years to grow.


I was heartbroken for about 15 minutes.


The space between here and there is getting smaller.


Years pass and a view of him on ESPN at the Yankees playoff game, a drive down his moms street, the thoughts of him less and less. He has moved on, to the Bronx, had a kid, dipped out of that. Then to Brooklyn and finally to Jersey City. I still hadn't left the attached buildings I grew up in, the apartment where he left me crying years before. Our drinking was the only thing that stayed consistent with us in the time we were apart. I was drinking Guinness and rum and he had taken a preference to Remy. My time with the bottle was starting to wind down. The days of the Terrace Club when my drinking had no consequence were coming to a screeching halt.


It's still a little unclear the years we were apart. The bar life took hold of me and the after hour vampires sucked the life out of him. We had no idea that simultaneously our worlds were imploding. A bottle of Appelton rum had beat me senseless. It took losing everything to realize there were some things I actually wanted. I had lived my life with reckless abandon and on one afternoon in February it all caught up with me. Within a few breaths I permanently lost custody of my daughter and quit drinking. He had not hit his bottom yet but was well on his way.... A couple of years latter on a sunny Saturday morning in august his journey minus the bottle began too.


The space got really short thanks to the internet.


It was 2006 and my life was slowly being rebuilt from almost nothing. I was unrecognizable. I did all I could to leave that girl from AG, the projects I grew up in behind. I covered my arms and chest with tattoos. I had a brief moment where I stopped listening to hip hop. There was no one on my roster from childhood for the first time in my life. I was heavily involved with my new crew, and they were nothing like the old one. They were sober. 1 new message is what the screen on my, MySpace showed from TLooney. Todd something, that dude from Port Chester I used to fuck with back in the day. I was 30 years old, 2 years without a drink and was baffled. Without much hesitation I met him at Johnny Cakes for coffee the same day and our lives have not been the same since.


Almost no space between us.

It unraveled at the speed of a Das Efx song. He called, I answered, we kissed, we reminisced, we were foggy on details of the past. I was sober, he had no intent on sobriety yet has not had a drink since. The universe decided we would spend the rest of our lives together that afternoon and we had no clue.


There is no space.

We are together. It's exactly 6 years later from our second encounter,and 15 from our first. We live in Bed stuy. My daughter is at VSU. His daughter is with her mother and temporarily not in our lives. We have a life beyond our wildest dreams. It's been shaken a few times and once almost completely shattered but I will never let go. He will never let go. We are one. Neither of us could ever be replaced by another, too much has happened, we are too connected. There is no more space between here and there. We have the same name. The same family. We are each others protectors. It has never been nor ever will be without work. The amount we put into us is bigger than the borough of Brooklyn.

Where we at yo!

This summer is flying by. We were able to see a few shows already. Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival where my favorite of all time, Slick Rick graced the stage. I gave dap to Sadat X, whom no one seemed to recognize in the crowd-strange even though Brand Nubians rocked it at Red Hook a few weeks before. EPMD sang some classics in Bed Stuy and we are gearing up to see Das Racist at Afro Punk in a few weeks. We are both feeling some of the younger cats out there- I kind of heart Earl Sweatshirt and Mac Miller, it's nice to get some real hip hop out of kids.... If I ever hear another Drake or Nicki Minaj song again it will be too soon.


We are continuously seeking happiness on the streets of Bed Stuy. When you are a 30 something married couple it's much easier to achieve happiness than it was when we were in our 20's. We joined the Hattie Carthan Community garden so after we go to our group meditation, Saturday mornings, we pick up our fruits, veggies and Bed Stuy chicken coop eggs for the week. I sometimes look at our life and I actually gasp. We both spent years "chasing the party" now we eat local, fresh, organic foods and ride bikes everywhere. We have become two people that in the darkest recesses of our minds didn't even know existed. Adults. My kid is heading off to Virginia State University in 3 weeks and we will enter the next phase of parenting, parenting a college kid. I have no idea what this has in store for us but I am excited for the unknown.


Life is beyond good, they say in our community beyond our wildest dreams. Sure we have shortcomings and hurt each others feelings sometimes but every night we lay down together and fall a little deeper in love.

#Mayday #occupy #mixedfeelings

I have mixed feelings about the occupy movement and I have since it started. My boss closed  the store today for mayday and we headed over to Bryant Park. I spent a couple nights at Zucotti when the movement first started but I have not been active in it, at all. I was conveying why it doesn't have much to do with my generation: the out of college, already have kids and jobs and too young for the 60's sit-ins and not emotionally attached enough to anything. While I was saying it though I kind of stopped believing what I was saying. The truth is me and my husband are in that tax bracket that fucks us. It is impossible to save money when the country wants to keep fighting wars, because the only way we would be able to save is if, we didn't pay combined over $1,500 in taxes every month. My daughter is going to come out of college with about $80,000 in debt and no health care. So I should get more active in #occupy. The truth is it is my movement. The truth is I want the occupy movement to be bigger than it is. I expected more people at Bryant Park this morning- I thought there would be more to it! I have no idea where the answers lay, I don't even know if this country is "fixable" it seems so broken. In an ideal world occupy would become the 4th party and be involved on more of a level that I can understand.

Spring Love... Come Back To Me

YO! Spring has sprung. The winter was pretty random, I went back to college last semester. Becoming a college freshman at 36 is not ideal but it's my path. I figure with Tasiya starting school this September (Virginia State University) I better set the example. I have fallen in love with learning. Being a student is something I was never good at. I was in self contained and "special classes" all through school and never really learned anything. My mind is melding with school now, it is superb. I've been sitting in meetings for 8 years listening to stories about people going back to college and now I understand why they do.

My favorite class so far has been The Puerto Rican Experience In The US and my favorite person is:

Pedro Pietri Puerto Rican Obituary

Celebrate Brooklyn

Summer 2011 has been fresh to def (showing my age). We joined our local CSA and eat kale on the regular. We are supporting farmers of color and eating much healthier than ever before, in a million years I never would've thought this would end up being where/who I am at this very moment. The CSA is dope. We get organic/locally grown fruits and veggies. Farm fresh milk in glass jugs that is thick and yummy and farm fresh eggs. Have you had a farm fresh egg? They are pretty dang tasty. We are definitely doing our part promoting urban agriculture and spreading the word on eating healthy. I actually have some neighbor hood ladies that want me to give them some tips and a cooking class on eating healthy. It is such a lie that women of color are not interested in taking care of their children by feeding them healthy. They are, they just need more education and more neighbors in the community willing to not be afraid about discussing eating healthy!


Our bikes are clockin' miles around BK. We have seen Talib @ Redhook Park, Nice and Smooth @ Van Buren Park and last week the dopest show to date; Lyricst Lounge with Raekwon, Joell Ortiz, Smif and Wessun, Sean P (the brokest rapper for real)and some other folks. We have the privilege of VIP passes for Celebrate Brooklyn through my job so we sat off to the side and enjoyed the show. My 17 year old (Tasiya) even referred to me as a groupie (of Joell Ortiz)- Yo he is so cute, I love him for real. It's a beautiful thing when families can enjoy hip hop together. Even though the range of what I consider good hip hop and what she considers the best hip hop don't even come close. I just am not nor have I ever felt Lil Wayne. He is a joke I think. So degrading and his voice is annoying as all hell... I can not identify a Wiz Khalifa bar but after walking down Cortelyou with Tasiya I am now familiar with "Taylor Gang" as a young boy made a reference to her rockin' red chucks... Something like yo gal in the red chucks {pause} Taylor Gang!. I actually thought he was referring to her wild blond hair and called her Taylor Dane. My bad- these kids have no idea who Taylor Dane even is.

Anyway love is in the air we are the happiest we have ever been life is as close to perfect as one can wish for! Brooklyn LOVE!

Turn the cheek...let it slide!

After browsing through my favorite "hip hop blogs" this morning, I was put onto this new video by Pharoahe Monch ft. Styles P & Phonte, "Black Hand Side". I love that the back drop is in Bed Stuy, where I have seen Pharoahe Monch from time to time. I won't go into how "real hip hop" is missing these days, but this is definitely some "grown folk hip hop".

Peep the video and as simple as the video is...it's all that is needed to tell the story.

Spring Love

The sun is out and the weather is getting warmer. It means that we will be able to ride our bikes without bundling up and it makes us both so happy. The trees are starting to show signs of life. The street have more people on them.

I just had to post this...

Spring Love - Stevie B from Daniel Henriqué Sousa on Vimeo.

Seasons Change: Verse 2 (and 3yr Anniv Of Living In The Stuy)

New Haircuts, new attitudes, one of the kids has a new address, new commitments, and a lot of old behavior. Damn I am glad the winter is over! I find it remarkable the amount of shit the human heart can bare. The bone chilling winter, the endless snow storms,the ache of a broken heart and the willingness to put the winter of 2011 behind us...


Brooklyn, the place I have always longed to be. Brooklyn the borough where I have never sinned. Never had a drink or a drug. Never kissed another man besides my husband. The planet, the place where I learned to be a wife. The place Todd decided would be our home. Do or Die the place where my soul started to grow. Bed Stuy, where I lay my head every night next to his and fall asleep and get to dream of the magic that we are capable of grasping.


I have grown to fall in love with these streets. I have fallen in love with myself as walk down Fulton and I have fallen more in love with him as we walk down Hancock. I look up at the giant sky and really wonder if I deserve this. The second definition of home in the dictionary is: the place in which one's domestic affections are centered. I am glad I didn't have to come up with that line because it would of taken forever. The definition is exact. It describes what happens on the first floor of our brownstone everyday.


We have a love, a home, a truth that is un-shakable. It exist only in those who are willing to take a risk The chance of a broken heart that can be repaired, the willingness to move to a new place where you don't know anybody. The idea of starting a new life from the windows looking out into the most beautiful place in the world. A fear that is so healthy you can only grow from it.


There is no music to reference in this post, no hyperlinks to take you somewhere else. The only thing you get is a brief journey through my mind.

IT'S BIGGER THAN HIP HOP

Well sort of...okay not really in my world.

Hip Hop has meant so much to me and I can tell you exactly where I was when I heard some of my favorite songs. A few years ago my best friend told me that he was part of this group that was going to try and build a HIP HOP MUSEUM. I was skeptical at first, kind of rule number 1 to me in HIP HOP. I had many questions and a bunch of suggestions. Anyhoo, my friend has been working closely with a bunch of dedicated folks who love this culture of ours. I mean they are doing this without making $1.00 from all of the work that they have put in so far.

I'm not going to go into what they have been through, but...do you love hip hop?

Love and Marriage, Love and Marriage....

We have made it through our first year of marriage. A few doors were slammed, a couple of F-U's were tossed about and a night or 2 was spent on the couch but, for the most part we fell deeper in love with each other. Finding a place for unconditional love seems easy but the practice of it is not. Self centered fear (the fear of loosing what you have or not getting what you want)bloomed in my soul like a rotten flower...

Finding true love was really hard (for both of us). We both have a reckless past and many hearts have been broken, some more than once but in the end I have the most amazing husband in the world. He loves me the best he can and I do the same. For christ sake I am a Puerto-Rican hoodrat from the projects.... he knew what he was getting into!

There was a night when John Legend ended up getting stuck on our itunes for about 3 hours and so now every song is associated with the happiness that night brought and in moments when I am restless, irritable or discontent I can listen to a little JL and smile. I have to remember that music soothes me. It can fix what is broken, it can heal the past and help to make love to the future. There are albums that got me through some of the most devastating times of my life. Das Efx- They Want Efx brought me through my best friends Death. Jaheim- Still Ghetto was the first CD me and my daughter (who was 8) sang to every morning without missing a word and when I lost custody of her I listened to it over and over remembering the mornings I drove her to school and was filled with something that only that CD could give me. Mary J- Whats The 411 did for me what it did for every other 17 year old girl at the time. Jean Grae's- Jeanius got me through a traumatic experience a couple of years ago and the list goes on and on...

Thank God we have music! What song heals you?

What What!!!!

It was not the most memorable of summers. We did see Jay Electronica in Red Hook which was pretty dope,we took the kids to see John Legend out in Coney Island there was about a 15 minute show we caught in Von King Park. I can't even remember who it was.... Sadiq from Platnium Pied Pipers moved in with his girl upstairs so I usually get some fresh beats from Detroit on my day off but other than that the summer was kinda dull.

The fall however went hard today. Restoration Plaza set off a community day in Bed Stuy, closing Fulton between Marcy and Brooklyn Aves. Lots of African art, face painting, red velvet cakes, vintage sheepskins and music for all people. The sound system was less than mediocre and the first group up Cubic Zirconia paid dearly for the techies mistakes. From what I could decipher it was upbeat hipsterish music that may have been pretty good if they didn't sound like they were performing in the lower Hudson Bay. Up next was one of my favs Invincible, the sound system improved and she tore it up. Sympathizing with Palestine, calling out for the end of "blood diamond" mining and taking a moment to give a shout out to all the queer kids who are suffering..... Her music says more than anyone else out right now (I think). It is the definition of intelligent hip-hop.

Holy shit do you know who Tamar-Kali is? Well you should because she is a monster on the mic. Todd said Talib tweeted about her being "our generations Nina Simone" her voice is powerful, her presence is huge and her music is loud. I wanted to start a mosh pit with my girls but I don't think they mosh in the hood'.

And last but not least my favorite blogger/tweeter/rapper Jean Grae!!!!!! She rocked out with a Halloween skeleton theme and had a beat from The Itchy And Scratch Show, she is bonkers. She called for parents to "ear muff" their kids when she repeatedly dropped the F- bomb, how can you not love her? She reminded me why I call Bed Stuy my home, why we have this blog and why we love Hip Hop. Brooklyn, Bed Stuy particularly is like no other place in the world.

It was all a dream, but now it's a surrounding view...

We just had dinner and while eating we had on our ITUNES. Of course, we are "hip hop heads", so there was a lot of cursing coming on. Needless to say, we had to fast forward through a few songs. The funny part is that Lexie's daughter, 16 years old, is a fan of today's Hip Hop so, she knows all about cursing in her music.

I remember a twitter feed that I read earlier from John Forte, so the search was on. I found the song and here it is. He's from Bed Stuy...so I think it fits.

This to me is what late 30 somethings need to listen to.



What do you think about it?

Live From Bedford Stuyvesant, The Livest One.....

Even though Biggie lived in Clinton Hill he repped Bed Stuy and so do we. I read a lot of blogs, message boards, newspapers and such on the internets and lately anything on twitter with #bedstuy. I am baffled by what people think of my hood. On twitter you would think Bed Stuy is the equivalent of Beirut. It is 2010 and this a public service announcement for all heads who want to know what Bed Stuy is really like.

Bed Stuy has CSA's, organic markets, outdoor flea markets, bike lanes, summer concerts in the park, block parties, block associations, summer camps, basketball tournaments and hundreds of other positive things. Why is this always left out of the conversation? Why is it so much easier to focus on the bad? How come the only time Bed Stuy is on the news is to report another shooting? Bad shit happens everywhere. In major cities there is more crime because there are more people. Bed Stuy is equivalent to a major city. It's just the way it is.

I have thought about moving out of the Stuy a few times in past couple of years but we have really made the south side of Bed Stuy our home. For many reasons we have chosen to stay. This is a direct quote from my 16 year old "Mom lets go to Peaches, I love to see see all the beautiful black professionals there at brunch". Put that in your next article or post.