Source: ATLPics.net

We already know Robert DeNiro loves the brown sugar so it really shouldn’t be a surprise that he’s hanging out with rappers on a random Thursday night, but then again it is. Probably the most unlikely of characters to attend rapper Young Jeezy’s It’s Tha World mixtape album release party in the ATL last night was in fact the actor who is every bit of an Italian-Irish New Yorker.

More interesting than his attendance though, is this pic of DeNiro giving Ludacris an earful — but of what we don’t know. Last time Robert was having a heart to heart with a rapper, he was setting Jay-z straight about reneging on a deal they had set in place. Though this interaction looks a little more lighthearted, we’d be lying if we said it didn’t cross our minds that ol’ Rob might be whispering a not-so-kind threat in Luda’s ear, or, who knows, maybe he’s just asking for directions to Magic City so he can see some skrippers.

Tell us your take on this uncanny convo and caption this pic for us.

Josiah True/ WENN.com

Okay, okay, okay, so maybe rapper, Game, is not so bad after all. Well, at least around election time that is.

According to TMZ, The Los Angeles born and raised MC was actually in NYC during yesterday’s nerve-racking election. And since many residents were still struggling with no electricity, no gas and even being displaced from their homes that were hit by Hurricane Sandy, he decided to step up and try to help folks get to the polls–by any means necessary. The rapper doled out $20 for cab fare to more than 500 people who had no way to get where they needed to be in order to vote, and he also drove people in New Jersey to polling places using his own means of transportation. All in all, he says he spent about $10,000 in his efforts, but says that he planned to do so because he didn’t want the many people he saw affected by last month’s hurricane to lose out. Plus, he says it was “small change” anyway. And while he did vote for Barack Obama via absentee ballot for California, he told TMZ that he wasn’t trying to influence anybody to vote for any particular candidate–he just wanted them to get out there and vote.

Well isn’t that nice! Can’t say whether this was done for publicity for his new reality show “Marrying The Game,” or if he was just that moved by people hurting on the East Coast, but the man deserves some major props for coming through and helping out in such a way. Some claim he was trying to push people to vote a certain way, but I doubt that. Plus, I’m sure those folks riding around in whatever luxury vehicle he was rolling around the city in were appreciative. Check out what he had to say to TMZ cameras:

WENN

And in other rapper news that has to do with the election, according to BET.com, if you’ve been missing Young Jeezy, you’ll be glad to know that he’s got a new single out, and it’s in honor of President Obama and another historic win for the President. I’m sure that in 2008 and after the results came in last night, you were probably banging “My President Is Black” by the rapper out of your speakers, your cars, your computers, etc. And while that track is great, “We Done It Again,” is a bit more calm, cool, and collected and reflective of things that have happened since 2008. Jeezy says the thirst for another four years of leadership from someone like the President–NOT Mitt Romney–is real (“What does Romney know about my ghetto? I say the least”), and he’s hoping the President’s win will help every little boy and girl struggling in ghettos around the country. As Young Jeezy says, “We waitin’ on a savior, maybe Barack.” I’m also digging the fact that this track isn’t so heavy with expletives like “My President Is Black,” but it’s still a dope one. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Image: Rick Ross at SXSW earlier this year. Image: Wenn

Surprise, surprise there was an altercation at the BET Hip Hop Awards on Saturday. Make that two altercations, one backstage and one in the parking lot. Classy. The current tally of involved parties includes: Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, G-Unit security, and some guy named Gunplay (yes, Gunplay). At this point, the channel might as well add one of those weigh-in press conferences to the pre-show festivities.

As news of the confrontations reached the masses, the network issued a statement:

For the past 7 years BET has celebrated the true art form of Hip Hop. Due to some misjudgment of select attendees, it is unfortunate that certain incidents took place. BET Networks does not condone any type of violence.

What BET really meant was that while they condone violence in the music, videos, and brands that they honor, don’t bring it to their event. It’s nonsensical for the network to think they can separate the two.

Business is not exempt from the laws of karma. Karma literally means “action.” It is a Hindu and Buddhist principle stating that the sum of a person’s actions decides their fate. Put simply, you get back what you put out.

When applied to the business world, the laws of karma demand that the energy around the product or service you promote comes back on the brand. If your product promotes positivity, your company will attract positive customers, employees, and partners. If your brand promotes ego-driven male posturing that revels in violence, you get a fight at every award show.

Companies and business schools are paying closer attention to the energy they put out as highlighted in BusinessWeek’s Karma Capitalism.

The seemingly ethereal worldview that’s reflected in Indian philosophy is surprisingly well attuned to the down-to-earth needs of companies trying to survive in an increasingly global, interconnected business ecosystem.

…”You are the architect of your misfortune,” [Swami Parthasarathy, one of India's best-selling authors on Vedanta, an ancient school of Hindu philosophy] said [during an auditorium lecture at Lehman Brothers]. “You are the architect of your fortune.”

When anything involving hip hop is discussed, Jay-Z is never far from the conversation. The mogul was no where near the award show, performing at the freshly minted Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets in which he owns a minority stake. As social media reacted to the news, many stated that rappers should pay closer attention to how Jay-Z handles himself. He may have had skirmishes early in his career, but since he’s become a businessman, he has reached Huxtable levels of polish.

I don’t subscribe to the school of thought that every rapper needs to aspire to be Jay-Z. Nor do the Hip Hop Awards need to look like an Oprah Winfrey production. However, companies and artists alike need to recognize that the opportunities available to them reflect the energy they put out. A short temper and a penchant for violence may be hot in the streets, but it’s not what stable sponsors or partners are looking for. If you lead a hood lifestyle expect hood money, which, while plentiful, is temporary.

C. Cleveland is a freelance writer and content strategist in New York City, perfecting living the fierce life at The Red Read. She is at your service on Twitter @CleveInTheCity.

Someone once told me that imitation was the sincerest form of flattery. That was a long time ago, back when I was still wearing overalls and those clear sandals with the glitter on them, but it still rings true. Prime examples are when other cultures tan their skin, lock their hair, wear baggy garb and more. Over the past few decades, some of our favorite white celebrities and public figures have decided to do everything from rap, do black hair, wear grills and array of other very interesting things. A lot of these moments had us laughing more than we thought we would, and because of that, they deserve some recognition. Here’s a few white celebrities having some very “black” moments. And before you get your panties in a knot, these folks were having good, positive fun. Nothing offensive.

Source: Screened.com

Natalie Portman

Before showcasing ballet skills as the black swan in Black Swan, SNL featured Natalie Portman, Harvard graduate and acclaimed actress, as a fiery and explicit rapper who took turned an innocent interview into a three minute opportunity to endorse drug and alcohol usage, threaten about a dozen people with bodily harm (and to go number two on their face), send love to Eazy-E and reject her fans. Done in good fun, the petite actress’ attempt at gangster (or “gangsta”?) was generally well-received.

itsbongoboy.com

Junior year of high school I refused to buy “Doggystyle,” the revolutionary Snoop Dogg album that set my school abuzz. It was an informal boycott based on the album’s ethos and subject matter – a seemingly nonstop celebration of decadence, violence and promiscuity. My stance lasted for about a month. Then I caved and bought the CD, listened to it faithfully for the rest of the year and kept it in regular rotation thereafter. Musically, it was near-perfect, and even if I disagreed with what Snoop was saying, I couldn’t bring myself to dislike the way he was saying it.

And so we come to my central dilemma with hip-hop, a complicated love/hate relationship that finds me scolding myself for enjoying music – on the surface, at least – that often clashes with my personal values.

Case in point: Last year, I bought the ringtone to Waka Flocka Flame’s “No Hands” against my own better judgment. The song concentrates exclusively on watching a stripper remove her panties — sans hands. At one point in the song, he even talks about running a train on a female.

But there’s that monstrous, gargantuan beat from Drumma Boy, and that captivating chorus from Roscoe Dash that turns women into sex objects but manages to entrance a self-respecting woman who should know better. I would be appalled by the excitement I feel when this song comes on in the club if I wasn’t so busy dancing. It’s only afterwards that I’m left feeling guilty and ashamed, like I just ate a carton of ice cream while watching “Jersey Shore” reruns.

It’s a similar situation with Lil Jon’s “Get Low.” Although the entirety of the song deals with females bending over and shaking their asses while Lil Jon and his posse of Eastside Boyz spew vulgarities and implore women to drop it to the floor, I essentially become a woman possessed when I hear this in the club; I’m liable to burn off my entire daily caloric intake before the song is over.

And then there’s Weezy. I appreciate Lil Wayne’s wordplay, but I often feel the need to shower after listening to his songs, which typically involve lewd descriptions of random sexual relations with some female, somewhere. “Now jump up on that d— and do a full split” Weezy instructs on “She Will.” Thanks, but she won’t be doing that anytime soon.

In spite of myself, I love Young Jeezy’s “I Luv It,” a song that revolves around drug dealing and its so-called financial rewards. I also love Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin.” I don’t want to ever not love it. I don’t want to overthink it to the point that I can’t enjoy the song. But at what point do I draw the line, say enough is enough, and decide not to sing along while rappers call us b—–s and h—s, glorify destructive lifestyles and turn the very real social ill of pimping into a punchline?

Am I supposed to excuse, for example, Clipse’s morally bankrupt tales of cocaine-slinging because they’re lyrically brilliant, and because I personally understand the conditions that leave black men feeling like drug dealing is their only escape from poverty?

Hip-hop is my favorite genre of music. Always has been, and probably always will be. While R&B from the late ‘60s and ‘70s spoke to the promise of a post-Civil Rights culture enjoying new freedoms, hip-hop was the outgrowth of broken promises, of crack-infested inner cities realizing that while old forms of oppression had fallen away, new ones had taken their place, and they often came from within: the pimp, the pusher, the player, seemingly inescapable cycles of violence and poverty.

I have defended hip-hop early and often, spouting its virtues to relatives who only know hip-hop as a Nelly song, or jazz music professors who deem it universally “aggressive” and don’t understand that rap music is, in fact, a direct outgrowth of jazz, and aggressive content is only one aspect of a much larger, more nuanced picture. I’ve spent hours explaining, educating and making and listening  to suggestions of those who think hip-hop is comprised entirely of promiscuous criminals and weed-smoking thugs.

But I’m tired of having to defend hip-hop. Tired of having to serve as a rap-to-real world translator for people who simply don’t understand the culture and see only its top layer. Tired of realizing that more and more, mainstream hip-hop is becoming that one-dimensional portrait of a black criminal or a self-absorbed hedonist, a misogynistic caricature that record companies and radio stations seem all too happy to depict and rappers seem all too willing to embody in exchange for a paycheck.

I love what hip-hop stands for in its essence: freedom, self-expression, the will to fight and overcome oppression. It emerged as the culture of the forgotten and the disenfranchised, the voice of a people that previously had none. It is the purest form of urban journalism: Chuck D of Public Enemy once called it the Black CNN.

I love hip-hop’s rhythm and its cadence, its wit and its charm, its anger and its defiance, its boldness and its swagger. I will continue to blast “Doggystyle” from my car speakers as I glide down the highway and rap gleefully along with every word. I just wish I didn’t have to temporarily stash my values on a shelf in the process.

Ladies, do you have a love/hate relationship with hip-hop? Let us know in the comments.

Lauren Carter is a writer, blogger and hip-hop head from Boston. Follow her on Twitter @ByLaurenCarter.

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“I don’t see it.” That’s exactly what I say each time the following names are brought up in a conversation about hot men in Hollywood. While many women, even followers of this site, swear up and down that these brothas are delicious and could “get it,” I’m always reading their comical comments, scratching my head and thinking, “Wow…really?” I’m a fan of most of these individuals, but you won’t see me throwing my panties at the computer screen for ‘em. But hey, whatever floats your boat, right?

Source: Esquire

Jay-Z

Ever since Beyoncé upgraded this brotha, people have been saying for years that he’s got it going on. Got what going on and in what way you ask? I can’t say 100 percent, but you can probably blame it on June Ambrose who made him re-evaluate his fashion choices, and the business sense he cultivated on his own, which helped him reach an audience outside regular hip-hop fans, invest in NBA teams, push a fashion label, be the head at Def Jam for a while and more. That in turn helped him rake in more and more money, and a lot of women find a man good with money to be attractive. For the most part, he seems to be a pleasant and sweet character, especially when he’s with his lady and baby girl. But all that talk of “Jay is looking good as hell right now!” just because he put a fitted cap on evades me…

rollingstone.com

Think back for a minute to when you were in high school.  Am I the only one who thought that the “ruffnecks” were the guys to be seen with??  They were often the cutest boys in school who wore the flyest clothes.  As we got older,our taste [hopefully] matured from dudes who looked like – and might – they would beat the ish out of anyone who looked at them for a second too long to someone who as a bit more tame.  In fact, maybe he have looked tough on the outside but was a softie on the inside.  This guy is the “semi ruffneck,” if you will.  There are a few celebrity men who also fit that bill so check out the “semi ruffnecks” we’re loving and make sure to add your faves too!

Just like we have our notions regarding the nature of men, they have similar ones about us too. The problem is, holding on to such beliefs can be detrimental for both sexes.

While we’re inclined to think that all men are dogs Your Tango came up with a list of generalizations men make about women that may keep them from falling in love.

Among the list is the thought that attractive women won’t give an average looking man the time of day. You can check out the rest of the article over at Your Tango.com.

Here comes the sun, pool parties, late afternoon barbecues and the complete awesomeness that is summertime.

With the weather, comes songs that capture the essence of the season. Remember those kick-backs at your cousin’s house, Slip ‘n Slide in the backyard, selling lemonade to the neighbors or visiting your nearest water park? All the memories tend to flood in with one breath of crisp, June air and the sound of the song from that summer. This year it’s all about blending genres — taking you from the stoop in Brooklyn to the rave party in Jamaica.

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