“You will no longer hear the buzz of African belly flies / There will not be a weekend wrap-up of the continuing Sudanese Genocide / There are far too many characters for every fallen hero to be eulogized / But the photo of your junk, it will be publicized…”
It’s true, a cappella rap battles ruined spoken word, mocking poetry slams’ finger-snapping pretension with WorldStar worthy debates about who “styled on” whom. But the message of Ronnie Butler, Jr.’s latest satirical poem Photographs of Your Junk (Will be Publicized) added a few extra layers to some important, if obvious, truisms. That is, the internet has ended privacy as we know it; and the nets can be a brain-draining wasteland, where social responsibility and intellectual curiosity
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If you haven’t read this T.I. interview yet, do so. As for the backstory, some questions will remain unanswered until time sorts things out. What’s left is after the jump…
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Along Haiti's Gran Rue (main street), this lady and her family, mourns the loss of her brother, who was killed in the earthquake. Her brother lies dead just out of camera view. (photo: e.parker)
The video posted here was captured on the walk back from Carrefour to Port-au-Prince. My fancy-shmancy video equipment ran out of juice just before the quake and my iPhone followed suit shortly thereafter. We were left with a thin kodak digital camera, that belonged to Vladimir. An outdated model, it had no special gadgets or doohickies. But it did allow for video recording, which helped us to show the magnitude of the suffering. It is taken precisely at day break. In Haiti, at this time, the sun rises in a rush and disappears in an instant. As you can see, it starts out very dark and the sun rises over the wreckage and exposes the tragedy.
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Man sits outside Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) the day after Haiti's earthquake. "God gives them and God takes them away," he said. (Photo by Vladimir Leguerre)
Yes, I’m very late in posting this video from the morning after the earthquake struck Haiti. When the earthquake hit, I was in Port-au-Prince with Vladimir Leguerre, my fixer (and a journalist in his own right). We walked from Port-au-Prince to Carrefour, where he lives. In short, the video in this post is a continuation of what we saw on our way back the next morning.
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T.I., DJ Drama, Alafamega, Big Kuntry talk about T-Pain’s Auto-Tune
Bol talks to the Erik Parker about his motives behind blogging and how the Bol persona fits into the everyday life of Byron Crawford. This is part II.
Polarizing blogger Byron Crawford aka Bol finally speaks out about his controversial posts that have ignited theire of some of raps biggest names: Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, Bun B., Pimp C, and more. He talks about his controversial musings from his works on byroncrawford.com and xxlmag.com.
Jay-Z releases Kingdom Come, his out-of-retirement disc. We explore what it means to come back after bowing out ever so gracefully.
It’s been four years to the day since Jam Master Jay was murdered and there are no convictions. The Hip-Hop cop Derrick Parker (no relation to Erik), talks hip-hop taskforce, jam master Jay murder investigation and more.
New York Rap dead for good? And Jay-Z goes to Africa. What does it all mean. The Parker Panel has answers. BK emcee Red Café, XXL Music Editor Anslem Samuel, and Tuma Basa from MTV offer insights.
