The Man Who Almost Crashed the Internet…

Michael Jackson then and now

It is a very sad day for a huge group of people spanning across the global.  The death of Michael Jackson on June 25th, 2009 was unexpected and very tragic to say the least.  For those of you who read my blog regularly know that I did a piece on MJ and his family issue about a month ago.  Well, I’m here to say that in hind site I don’t regret what was was because it was the truth, but it never occurred to me that he wouldn’t be here for me to write another story about him like that.  I never thought I would be writing about his death a month down the road.  It’s unexplainable how I feel right now, on my Facebook page I wrote “Wow! I feel feel sad for MJ the man, not the celebrity. The price of fame and fortune is really, really great. It’s almost like the price of freedom by any means necessary we will work ourselves into the grave. R.I.P Mike your songs will live forever.“  I just wish it didn’t happen this way, I mean I never really thought MJ would live to get old and gray, but to go out like other legend’s of his time Elvis, Jimmy, and John B. would be a damn shame.

I really hope that MJ didn’t go out over a drug overdose that’s, let me ask ya’ll this:  If MJ dies from a drug overdose would that make his legend become even more than what it is already or would it put a permanent crease and wrinkle (no pun intended) on his legacy?  For me, it would damper my opinion for the simple fact of what the man meant to everyone.  His was a global figure, a role model of sorts, people looked up to him as the end-all-to-be-all in the entertainment world.  A drug overdose would send the wrong message like it’s cool to take drug and pop pills because MJ did it, Anna Nicole Smith did it, Pimp C did it, Elvis did it, Jimmy Hendrix did it  and it seems that all the people who make it in the entertainment business is on some type of drugs.  Don’t manner the kind, everyone is getting down on that illegal and legal substances and that’s not cool.  It’s sending the wrong message to our youth, wouldn’t you agree.

Anyhow, let me get to the title of this blog and the reason for me writing, let me ask you a question.  How many people does it take to crash the Internet?  One, and his name is Michael Jackson.  MJ did in death what no one could do living and damn near brought down the Internet world-wide.  Here’s the article from CNN.com.  Ok, well he almost took down the Internet, but that only leads to my position on how much he influence people around the world.  Also, did you know that in MJ’s lifetime that he sold 750 million records world-wide.  Can you imagine that, gold is 500k sold, platinum is a million record sold and diamond is 10 million sold.  He’s ass went Diamond 75 times.  Wow!!!!!  Can you by that?  Hell naw.

If the King is a Monkey, What Does that Make YOU?

If the King is a Monkey, then what are you?

Greetings all, how are we today.  I thought summer was on it’s way here in the Bay, but it took a quick left and skipped town.  Anyway, let me tell you a story right quick.  I was on the Bart (Bay Area Rapid Transit) today, you know that place where killer cops prey on the passengers.  Yeah, that’s the one and I was getting off the Bart walking my normal route when something caught the corner of my eye.  I glance at it because I’m moving on the escalator and had to step back and get a good look.  To my surprise (not really because it’s the norm, I mean it’s been going on for hundred’s of years) there was a sticker placed in black and white that had the resemblance of  President Obama looking like a character from the Planet of the Apes and it read in big white letters “OBAMA 08″.  Not only that, people are so disrespectful that last week  a Senator said the First Lady was a descendant of orangutans.  WOW! A senator said that about his First Lady.  I wonder what would have happened if Mrs. Bush got called something so despicable (they would have had his ass in a sling).

So, this got me to thinking on my way to work today about just how much people are ignorant because of course that is the norm and white people have been calling blacks monkeys and apes for eons, but let’s think about this for a minute.  If the King of a land is a monkey, then what does that make the people of the land?

I think I have just came to the realization that we have a very, very long way to go in our country dealing with thing big ugly thorn in America’s side called racism.  It is the core, the foundation and the fundamental existence of our country and it’s going to take more that just electing a black President to over come the cold grip it has on our society.  Now, if we were to have called President Bush a white-bread-chicken-shit-mother-fucking-honkey (and as I spell “honkey”, my spell-check tells me that word doesn’t exist,but when I spell “nigga” my spell-check corrects me with “nigger”, LMAO) would have been made public, if a Senator of the House of Representatives stood up in the Grand Hall and said that shit, they would have hung that fool.  Am I lying, that’s why my blog is called “Truth Be Told”.  Think about that shit for a moment.  Peace.

Family Thing!!!!!

OK, here’s the thing.  You guys know from time to time I put underground mixtapes and artist on blast, showing them love and what not.  However, I do got a couple of mixtapes I want to put out there that I’m listening to right now, but because it’s a FAMILY THING, those go on the back burner.

For those of you that know and for some that don’t here it is.  My little brother is an up and coming artist (Big El) out of Dayton, Oh by way of Oakland, Ca and he has been into music for a minute now and he is beginning to hone his craft and is getting very good at it.  The dude is a big ass ball of energy, always has been (even without candy).  Just plain ass hyped, reminds me of how Pac use to be.  Now don’t get me wrong, not placing up there with Pac (not just yet, anyways), but as far as energy goes he would give him a run  for his money.  I raise my brother since he was born and finished it off when I kicked his ass out my house at the age of 18.  We have been through a lot while we were both coming up and it was always a family thing with us.  We always got each other backs and look out for each other.

Which brings me to this, for this to be his first video it is really rough, raw and gritty.  It’s called using what you have to get what you want and you can take that to so many levels.  We were raised to keep it moving and don’t be stagnated in one place and most of all keep your head up through all the pain and the pleasure and enjoy life as it comes.  I have to say this video makes me very happy that he is trying really hard to do something with his life and he is actively pursuing his dreams on whatever level he can.  That’s how we are, we do us.  Always have, but that also comes at a price.  I always told him to always chase your dreams, but don’t ever lose your vision in those dreams.  We all got to work and live and in order to do that you have to work very hard to get the things you really want out of life.  And he has done that, a couple of years back he told me “Bra, thanks for kicking my ass out the house back in the day.  That’s really help me get my shit together”.  From that moment on I not only look at him as my brother, but as a grown ass man.  Stay up bra and keep doing you. Stay focus, kiss my loves one for me and give them my love.  Checking out yall.

Just a Little Something for My Folks

Hey all, how are we?  Just dropping yall a line or two since I haven’t had a chance to post for a while.  I been really busy with my business and with other projects I got going on.  Well,  this past Tuesday would have been the 39th birthday of the greatest rapper that ever lived, Tupac Shakur.  His mom and the foundation gave a celebration down in the Stone Mountain, Ga (ATL) at the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation.  I’m glad to see someone is still going hard for him.  He really touched a lot of lives with the little time he had here on earth.  That brings me to the topic of this post (it actually just came to me, but we won’t tell nobody).

We are so caught up with our everyday lives and trying to keep our head above water that we seem to forget that we need to stop and smell the roses sometime and enjoy life to it’s fullest because we are not guaranteed tomorrow.  I know, I know you heard it all before and I’m here to tell you it’s not a bad thing to hear it again.  Just remember that you’re blessed to even be reading this post in the first place (ummmmm).  See, we have to count our blessing sometimes to really bring into focus what we have, what we want and what we need and how on God’s green earth are we going to get it?  Well, that’s where being thankful for things that you have, gets you a long way and makes you very appreciative for what’s coming on down the line.  Just a little something for ya to think about.  Peace.

Paying a Debt to Society… (Pause)

Well, hello there my people.  How are we on this fine gloomy day.  I just got one question for you all today, why is it called paying your debt to society when you successfully complete a prison sentence when the fact of the matter is you will never actually, really, all the way pay that debt back completely.  That’s why probation and parole was created, duhhhhh.  Let’s not be fooled people, we want to think in a perfect world that if a crime is committed and the time has been severed that people would be able to move on, but that’s not reality, that’s American society.  If the time fits the crime and everyone was satisfied with the verdict, why is it we still ostracize the recently released for there crimes.  If they have paid a debt to society, shouldn’t we the society move on and not hold on to what was done in the past.

It’s like buying a house on a 30 year mortgage and on your last payment of the 30th year (provided you didn’t re-finance too many times) your bank tells you, “The house is your free and clear, but you still got to pay a monthly fee for services we provided you during your mortgage.”  Now, wouldn’t that be a kick in the ass.  Wouldn’t that just piss you off, wouldn’t you feel helpless.  Well, that’s how this whole paying this so-called debt to society works.  If you do a crime, serve your time you still have been labeled a criminal and the way society works today, 9 times out of 10 you will end up doing the same crime again because you can’t make a living because of your criminal background.  So, in all actuality you continue to pay your debt to society by becoming a slave to it and keeping the cycle going.  I know, I’ve seen it done.  And the one thing you don’t want to do is become a felon, boyyy are your screwed for live.  I guess what I’m trying to say is that ‘WE’ as a SOCIETY don’t really believe people can change because if we did we could forgive, but never forget.

MJ Must Think We’re Freakin Retarded or Something…

Ok, first off no offense to mentally challenge persons (just to be politically correct and truthful).  But, it must be a good damn day for me to post 2 blogs in one day.  This shit right here, I have to say had me yelling at my computer screen.  I was visiting my favorite blogs while on break just a few minute ago (shouts out to theybf.com Young, Black and Famous) and I came across a post there which reads “Michael Jackson out with his kids, unmasked”.  Check’em out:

Ok, ok Lord please forgive me for what I’m about to say.  Michael Jackson is a damn fool to think that we as the viewing public really think that this man whole WAS black as any black person in Africa, let alone the U.S. could have artificially inseminated the mother of these kids and they came out looking like this.  I’m almost like Katt Williams now, to hell with MJ.  He done lost he beloved mind and want us to lose ours in the process.  Now, don’t get me wrong these are some fine looking kids (they looks a little touched, no pun intended).  However those are not MJ seeds man, I’m telling you.  This madness has got to stop.  What is the problem MJ, get at yo boy man.  Talk to me player, where did it all go wrong, after Thriller I bet.  Have you even seen a vajayjay MJ.  Damn dude, the funny thing is see we as black folks tend to take people into our culture and let them in and see how we gets downs, you know make them part of us.  When the white folks wanted your ass so bad and your started changing your appearance we was like “Oh, this fool about to switch sides for real”, we let you go.  Then you had the nerve to pay a doctor off to create a disease out of thin air, shit sounds like it came from nothing too, Vitiligo (I can’t even do a spell check on that damn word).  Man, that wasn’t even a disease until you pay Webster to put it in the dictionary with a picture of you next to it.  Too much.  How you do that Mike?  But that’ s not the kicker, then the white folk threw your pale rider ass under the bus when you start messing with them little sick kids, Mike and guess who took your black ass back in, we did Mike.  Cause we just don’t throw away the bad seeds, Mike.  We caring people, ya know.  MJ, get your shit together man and stop lying to yourself, to us and most importantly them kids dude.  Damn shame.

Where the Heart is? In San Francisco.

Hey my peoples, how are we doing this fine day.  I’m doing good for no other reason than I’m almost finished with a full week.  Meaning, I worked from Monday-Friday 9.5 hours a day for the first week in about 1 week.  Back to the grind, baby.  Anyway, I’m also feeling myself because I finally have a feel good story of sorts.  And here it goes:  I work in the City, for those of you who don’t know what the City is, it’s SF and it’s great.  I love working out here and I’m blessed to be able to have a job and working period.  With that being said, everyone knows we are having terrible times not only here in Cali, but everywhere and it’s not unusual to see homeless people amongst us, dealing or not dealing with their situations.  Well, as I come into work and leave to go home everyday I see a guy with a shoe shine booth on the corner, everyday.  Ok, so I never wear shoes that needs a shining, but I admire him for getting his hustle on and doing what he can do for whoever or whatever he’s doing it for (did that make sense?).  Anyhow, come to find out as I’m reading my daily newspaper on the web…. well I let you read it for yourself.  Check out these two links:

SF Scuffs Dream of Homeless Shoeshiner

and then this:

Shoeshine Man Catches a Break

Now if that deosn’t make you feel good about people as a whole and what we can do to help each other I don’t know what to tell your harden heart, but I will make sure I pray for you.  LOL.  No for real, I will be sure to get some of his services one day maybe have him shine up a pair of my Airforce One’s or something.  The coolest thing about it all is that he doesn’t want hand outs, he wants to work for what he gets.  He was just so overwhelmed by people just giving him money that hell, why wouldn’t he accept it.  Let’s get it together people, things are bad and we have a tough time ahead of us, but if we stick together and try to work together through our differences, I think we will be better for it.  All we have to do is try….. Peace.

The Blackman Did It, Lie!!

EPIC FAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was going to start off my post with my usual pleasantries, but decided against it because the topic of this post has convicted me (no pun intended) to drop some lines with a series tone.  Over the course of my blessed life I have read and seen numerous accounts of crime being committed by Blackmen across this great country of ours.  And it’s a well known fact that a high percentage of crimes committed here, the racial ratio blacks to whites are pretty much like weighing a pound of rocks to a bag of feathers on a the scales of justice.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not taking up for criminals of any race, if you do the crime you do the time, period.

This is what I’m saying, how far have we come if in a span of week a middle-aged white woman claims to have been kidnapped by a couple of blackmales and a black police officer is gunned down by his own department?  Has change come and gone just that fast or has it even came at all?  See, headlines like these make people look at us (the U.S.) in a bad light.  Here it is you can elect your first African American President, but still can’t shine through the blackness of racism.  Racism is like a bad after taste in the mouth that you can’t get rid of unless you use something strong to take the taste away.  Do you know how many Blacks people have been killed just because of what a white person said was done to them?  Not even counting the days of slavery or during or after Jim Crow, hundreds.  Do you now how many people have died in jail or are currently incarcerated do to the fact of a white person telling a lie?  How many times have a Blackman been killed because of mistaken identity or as they say “we all look alike”, can’t count that number.

The point is this, how are we suppose to move on when things like this are taking place still to this day.  How can I feel safe walking to and fro knowing that I could be scooped up and never seen the light of day because I fit the description or for that matter see another day at all?  I don’t feel safe, how could I?  All it takes is someone putting a lie out there and that could be it.  Sure, anything could happen and I could be found innocent and everything like that, but what about the hassle of it all or is this the real price of freedom being subjected to inconveniences of society?  Either way, we all lose in the end because no one stops to think how other people are affected from their actions and choices.  I think I’m about to invest in some GM stock, I will wait until it’s about .50 cents, right-about-now, sold.