Hip-Hop Turns 50, ‘Good Morning America’ Helps Celebrate
by Daniel Johnson

August 12, 2023

Hip-Hop Turns 50, ‘Good Morning America’ Helps Celebrate

As part of Good Morning America‘s celebration of hip-hop turning 50 and their summer concert series, Fat Joe, Remy Ma, Busta Rhymes, and BIA put on a performance live from Central Park on August 11.

Fashion, which often evolved alongside hip-hop artists like Lil Kim, Missy Elliott and pioneers like Grandmaster Flash was also well represented. According to Billboard, Bustle Digital Group’s Senior Vice-President of Fashion Tiffany Reed and stylist Joe Zee hosted a fashion show spotlighting some of hip-hop’s notable contributions to fashion. The two discussed contributions from Busta Rhymes, Lil Kim, Missy Elliott, and others that created a marriage between the streets and the world of high fashion.

 

Later that night, there were more festivities planned at Yankee Stadium. As Billboard reported, Hip-Hop 50 Live featured a who’s-who list of performers, spanning the history of hip-hop: Run DMC, Ice Cube, Lil Wayne, and Snoop Dogg were among those slated to share the spotlight celebrating hip-hop’s 50th birthday. The event also featured sets designed to honor the Queens of HIp-Hop and Pillars of Hip-Hop. Co-produced by Live Nation, Mass Appeal, and the New York Yankees and presented by Google Pixel and Ciroc, Hip-Hop 50 Live’s impressive list of corporate sponsors shows just how far the genre has come from its beginnings in the Bronx. 

An official start date for hip-hop is just about impossible to ascertain, but most oral legends place the start on August 11, 1973, when DJ Kool Herc was responsible for spinning records at a party in The Bronx. Herc’s sister Cindy threw the party along with DJ Herc, and after the party spilled over into nearby Cedar Playground Park, hip-hop was born. Originally, the party was a back-to-school party thrown at 1520 Sedgewick Avenue in the rec room of his family’s project tenement building. As XXL reported, Herc debuted a technique known as “the break,” which is where the term “break-dancing” originated from. The break consists of a DJ isolating and looping a part of a track with heavy percussion that would have the effect of getting people out on the dance floor.

 

 

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The fact that Cindy helped throw the party is not a footnote, but her role in the story is often overlooked when the origins of hip-hop are discussed. Washington Post writer Helena Andrews-Dyer briefly noted this in a piece centering on director dream hampton and her view of how hip-hop has historically treated women. Hampton noted that the women of hip-hop are in a much better position to succeed today because they are largely independent of the kinds of co-signs that a female artist would have needed in the past. “But I will say that there’s never been a more exciting time for women in hip-hop than right now. That whole one at a time thing, the idea that you had to be embedded in a crew or had to be co-signed by a man? All of that is gone.”

by Mary Spiller

August 12, 2023

Savannah’s Public Square To Be Renamed After John Calhoun Removal

A new list of nominees is being considered to be honored in Georgia’s currently unnamed public squares, according to an August 12 Associated Press report. The latest news surrounding the historic green space is diverse, since nine months ago, Georgia removed the name of a pro-slavery U.S. vice president from one of its public squares. Most notably, one of the nominees is a Black woman who taught formerly enslaved people how to read and write.

The square had been named for South Carolinian John C. Calhoun for nearly 200 years. While serving as a vice president and congress member, Calhoun avidly supported slavery before the Civil War and later became a Confederacy member. 

However, Susie King Taylor is a candidate to be honored in his place. Taylor opened a school for Black people of all ages on the coast back in 1862. She was supported by Union soldiers in her endeavors to educate and protect enslaved people. Through her literacy and activism work, Savannah is considering choosing her name to be featured in one of the city’s squares.

The vote for a new name, which includes six in total, will occur on August 24. Out of all the finalists, none are white men. The finalist includes Black pastors, a formerly enslaved person, an army pilot, a civil rights fighter, and Native Americans from indigenous Savannah tribes. 

Chairman of Savannah’s Historic Site and Monument Commission, Kristopher Monroe, said of the pool, “Regardless of what name is picked, it will be a name that represents more diversity in Savannah, and sort of expands the story that Savannah tells about itself.”

A guided tour leader from the area spoke to the outlet about how important it was that the square was adequately named after Calhoun was removed. 

“This square has a lot of memories for what it used to be. It is honorable to say we can remove Calhoun.”

by Mary Spiller

August 12, 2023

Millionaire Artists Received $200 Million In Federal Grants From Small Business Administration

According to a shocking Insider report, a handful of millionaire artists have received upwards of $200 million in pandemic relief through the Small Business Administration’s “Save Our Stages” grants. The August 11 report cited names like Post Malone, Chris Brown, Nickelback, Lil Wayne, and others. 

The Save Our Stages campaign was started back in the throes of the pandemic, and its goal was to support independent music venues that were financially hit the hardest by the virus. Congress decided in December 2020 that the Small Business Administration would have $16 billion in grant money to distribute. Although it took six months to begin the process of handing out grants, once the Save Our Stages initiative got off the ground, smaller venue owners and artists were granted, at most, $100,000 in relief money.

The difference in payouts between initial vendors and, more recently, significant artists has people disappointed. The Insider report disclosed that although many of the millionaire artists previously owned or still own businesses that qualify for the small business grants under the policies, their payouts were significantly larger than many others. Chris Brown allegedly was paid $10 million, Lil Wayne was granted $9.8 million, Canadian band Nickelback received $2 million, and Common was paid nearly $3 million.  

A Los Angeles law firm submitted grants for 97 different artists, managers, and venues, totaling more than $250 million in payouts; of that, $200 million went towards big-name millionaire artists. An SBA Inspector General suggested that “8% and a third of loans given out during that period” could have been fraudulent. 

Sources within the industry said, “Insider defended the [grant allocation] by pointing out that many artists typically contract with hundreds of sound and lighting technicians, costumers, drivers, security personnel, and other contractors when they put together a tour. All those contractors were out of work during the lockdowns, the sources said, and artists applying for grants could have used the money to help keep them afloat. But there was no requirement that they spend the money that way.”

Still, the sheer difference in awards has had social media users questioning the fairness of the Save Our Stages process.

by Daniel Johnson

August 12, 2023

Liz Cambage Releases Statement After Poorly Received Interview

Liz Cambage recently gave Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report an interview discussing a wide range of topics including a scrimmage between the Australian and Nigerian national teams during the Tokyo Olympics where Cambage allegedly called a player or players “monkeys”.

Cambage’s interview was fact-checked in real-time on Twitter/X by members of the Nigerian national team, particularly when she mentioned being “in cahoots” with unspecified members of said national team to become a member of the Nigerian team.

Promise Amukamara, a guard for the Nigerian national team, took to Twitter to quote a clip of Cambage’s interview and call her side of the story a lie. At the same time that the interview clips were circulating on social media, a leak of the scrimmage video began to make its way around platforms, including Twitter/X. Even though audio of the scrimmage was extremely difficult to pick up at points, it was evident that the Nigerian players had enough of Cambage’s extremely physical play. Following a play in which Cambage delivered a palm to the face of a Nigerian player, the player whom Cambage hit ran over to the sideline and punched her in the jaw.

 


According to reporting from Yahoo, members of the Nigerian national team and the Australian national team have independently gone on the record to say that Cambage did use a racial slur towards the Nigerian players. In her interview with Rooks, Cambage also discussed her brief stint with the LA Sparks, and her side of the story regarding her departure was quickly dismissed by ex-teammate, Jordin Canada.

Canada wrote in a post: “I usually keep to myself and mind my business but Bleacher Report if y’all want the REAL TRUTH, call me.” Following the interview’s poor reception on Twitter/X, Cambage released a statement that attempted to establish that she never called Nigerian players monkeys or used any other racial slurs, and also attempted to change her story about joining the Nigerian team. Cambage said in her statement that she was merely expressing interest, as opposed to actively trying to get on the team, which is not what was conveyed in her sit-down with Rooks.

Cambage has been a lightning rod for controversy during her relatively brief time in the WNBA, dating back to when the Tulsa Shock (now the Dallas Wings) drafted her in 2011. Cambage reportedly did not want to play for Tulsa and opted not to play for the team that year, citing exhaustion. Cambage instead chose to play overseas in China for five years before returning to the team following their relocation to Dallas/Ft. Worth and their rebrand to the Wings.

During the interview, Rooks remarked that Cambage’s exit from the Sparks marked the third time that she was able to force her way from a team, something that the journalist said was a pattern for Cambage. Cambage’s response was to blame it on the way the media covers her, which was a common theme in Cambage’s responses to pointed questions from Rooks.

In their discussion of the interview on Around The Rim, hosts LaChina Robinson and Terrica Foster-Brasby expressed their frustrations with the way Cambage seemed to conduct herself in the interview. Brasby said, “It didn’t feel like there was any accountability for the things that you could control, that Liz could control. There didn’t seem to be much accountability in that for me, and I was just really disappointed.”

Montgomery Brawl “Folding Chair Man” Arrested
by Mary Spiller

August 12, 2023

Montgomery Brawl “Folding Chair Man” Arrested

The Black man famous for wielding a folding chair in the August 5 riverfront Montgomery, AL brawl has been arrested. Reggie Ray, 42, willingly surrendered to MPD authorities on the evening of August 11. 

Ray, who was caught on video hitting someone with the folding chair, is being held in Montgomery’s Municipal Jail on charges of disorderly conduct. According to WSFA 12, he’s the first person of five to be charged who was not a white attacker from the pontoon boat. The other four individuals charged with misdemeanors in the investigation were people from the private pontoon boat that blocked the dock that the Harriott II, a cruise ship, needed to dock. 

The fight that ensued after the owners of the pontoon boat attacked a Black dock worker was caught on camera, and the videos allowed authorities to identify Ray. According to a deposition filed by the MPD, during the brawl, authorities witnessed Ray “wielding a white chair and swinging it towards an unknown subject [and he] was able to grab Ray and remove the chair from his hands.” 

“Via body cam video footage seen (on August 9, 2023), Ray can be seen striking a white male wearing gray shorts and no shirt with the white chair several times.”

After detaining him, Montgomery police ran a background check. Once it came up clean, he was released for the time being, pending further investigation. 

Montgomery Mayor, Steven Reed, released a statement the same day to address the fight. He said, “This is a fluid investigation. At this point, the FBI has not classified these attacks as a hate crime, but the investigation is ongoing.”

He addressed the incident through the lens of a Black man and as a mayor.

“As a former judge and as an elected official, I will trust this process and the integrity of our justice system. However, my perspective as a Black man in Montgomery differs from my perspective as mayor,’’ Reed stated, “From what we’ve seen from the history of our city — a place tied to both the pain and the progress of this nation – it seems to meet the moral definition of a crime fueled by hate, and this kind of violence cannot go unchecked.”

“It is a threat to the durability of our democracy, and we are grateful to our law enforcement professionals, partner organizations and the greater community for helping us ensure justice will prevail.”

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, LAWSUIT, fired, job, work, let go
by Cedric 'BIG CED' Thornton

August 12, 2023

University Of Georgia Terminates Staffer Less Than A Month After She Files Lawsuit Against the School

Last month, Victoria Bowles, a survivor of the crash that took the lives of University of Georgia offensive lineman Devin Willock and recruiting staffer Chandler LeCroy, filed a lawsuit against the UGA Athletic Association. Earlier this week, the University of Georgia issued a statement that Bowles had been terminated.

The Associated Press reported that the school dismissed Bowles because she did not want to cooperate with the school’s investigation of the crash. But her attorneys stated that she was terminated in retaliation for filing the lawsuit against the school.

According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a statement was released by the University of Georgia.

“Applicable policies require university employees to cooperate with internal investigations. Over the course of several months, Ms. Bowles was asked — on numerous occasions — to speak with our investigators and provide information, and through her attorney, she repeatedly refused to cooperate.

“As a result, we were ultimately left with no choice but to terminate her employment.”

Bowles’ attorney, Rob Buck, who is representing her in the lawsuit, also released a statement and claimed that the university has engaged in a “campaign of intimidation” against Bowles.

“Tory, like all other perceived liabilities to the football program, became expendable to UGA, and despite her loyalty and meager salary, has been steamrolled,” he said.

Bowles, a former recruiting analyst for the University of Georgia, submitted the paperwork in Gwinnett County the week of July 14, 2023. She accused the UGA Athletic Association of negligence.

She also said that the Athletic Association was negligent in allowing LeCroy to drive the car while she was working. Her attorneys claim officials knew that “LeCroy had at least four speeding tickets, which included two ‘super speeder’ violations under Georgia law.” The suit also stated that LeCroy’s supervisor was in the vehicle when she was stopped and given her most recent super speeder ticket on Oct. 30, 2023.

In Bowles’ lawsuit against the university, she is also suing recently drafted Philadelphia Eagles rookie Jalen Carter, who was driving the other vehicle when the accident occurred. She accuses Carter of leaving the scene without speaking to law enforcement and failing to render aid.

RELATED CONTENT: Former University Of Georgia Staffer Files Lawsuit Against The School And NFL Rookie Jalen Carter

Black Dock Worker Describes Montgomery Brawl In Detailed Deposition
by Mary Spiller

August 12, 2023

Black Dock Worker Describes Montgomery Brawl In Detailed Deposition

Dock worker Damien Pickett has spoken with authorities about the Aug. 5 brawl in Montgomery, Alabama. In a written deposition filed with Montgomery police and obtained by NBC News, Pickett recalled the terrifying incident of being jumped by a group of white boaters on the riverfront after telling them to move their boat so that an authorized cruise vessel could dock.

Pickett wrote in the deposition that he asked the group of white boaters to move their pontoon boat several times over his intercom as the cruise vessel, Harriott II, approached. When he finally went to the pontoon in person, he claimed the men on the boat flipped him off and refused. He and his fellow dockhand were forced to finally untie the pontoon boat themselves and move it just “three steps to the right” so that the Harriott II could pull in.  

Pickett described the moment that the fight started. “By that time, two people ran up behind me,” Pickett wrote. He said that one man, dressed in a red hat, yelled, “Don’t touch that boat motherf***** or we will beat your a**.”

“I told them, ‘No, you won’t. Do what you’ve got to do; I’m just doing my job.’”

He continued to recall that two “very drunk” white men came over to him belligerently, and another attempted to “try to calm them down.” However, when the pontoon’s boat owner approached, the situation escalated further. The owner “started getting loud … He got into my face. [He said] ‘This belongs to the f****** public.’ I told him this was a city dock.”

“By that time, a tall, older white guy came over and hit me in the face. I took my hat off and threw it in the air. Somebody hit me from behind. I started choking the older guy in front of me so he couldn’t anymore, pushing him back at the same time. Then the guy in the red shorts came up and tackled me … I went to the ground. I think I hit one of them.” 

Pickett described the white men attacking him as threatening him as they all threw blows at him. They said things like, “I’m gonna kill you, motherf*****. Beat your ass, motherf*****.” 

Pickett wrote, “I can’t tell you how long it lasted. I grabbed one of them and just held on for dear life.”

The dock worker continued to describe when help arrived for him in the form of fellow Black people. Two Black men pulled the group of white men off him, and he even saw that “one of my co-workers had jumped into the water and was pushing people and fighting. My nose was running … and I could hear passengers and co-workers arguing with the people who attacked me.” 

When the Harriott II could finally dock, Pickett said that his nephew was one of the first off the boat and chased after his attackers. The deposition outlines how the situation escalated further as more people tried to help. 

“The security guard was trying to get the lady in red to leave; she wouldn’t listen. People from off the boat and spectators were coming down the back end of the dock. The guy who started it all was choking my sister. I hit him, grabbed her, and moved her … I turned around, and MPD had a Taser in my face. I told him I was the one being attacked and could I finish doing my job.”

During the chaos, Pickett helped the Hariott II’s passengers off the boat and instructed those with footage of his attack to the MPD officers on the scene. 

When Pickett was finally able to get to a medic, he was sent to the emergency room because his “head was hurting [and he felt] felt a knot in the back of [his] head and the front.” Although he was bruised and battered, thankfully, Pickett suffered no broken bones.

RELATED CONTENT: Montgomery Mayor Promises Justice After Alabama Brawl Goes Viral

Elderly Black Women Forced To Leave Home After 3-Year Battle With Texas Transit Department
by Sharelle B. McNair

August 12, 2023

Elderly Black Women Forced To Leave Home After 3-Year Battle With Texas Transit Department

A long battle with the Texas Department of Transportation (DOT) is causing an elderly Black homeowner to leave her home after 40 years, NBCDFW reports. Dora Overton of Tarrant County received a letter in 2020 from TxDOT—while she was sick in the hospital—about the expansion plan for Interstate 20, which is directly south of her home.

The project was slated to widen I-20 to 10 main lanes from I-820 to US 287, I-820 to eight main lanes from I-20 to Spur 303, and reconstruct the I-20, I-820, and US 287 interchanges. Overton is the last resident to hold out while living in a property seized by Texas DOT.

Overton can’t afford to live in any of the surrounding properties, so she is forced to leave. The 79-year-old grandmother of five says she doesn’t mind moving but doesn’t like how things unfolded. “I’m not opposed to moving, not at all, I see the traffic on I-20 every day, and I know something needs to be done, and I appreciate them wanting to do something; I just don’t appreciate how they did it to me,” Overton said.

With the help of her attorney, who handled Overton’s case for free, she settled, claiming it wasn’t looking good either way. The unnamed lawyer tried to get her more money, but ultimately the amount wouldn’t be enough for her to find a new place. “It’s not giving me a chance to find a location to try and buy what I feel to be comparable to what I got,” she explained about the undisclosed amount.

“There’s no way I can buy a replacement home with what they gave me, no way.”

As the matriarch of her family, Overton says the move is a lot for her grand and great-grandchildren. According to the Dallas Morning News, they are wondering where holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the Fourth of July will be spent moving forward. “I think it’s too much for them,” Overton said.

Temporarily, she plans on staying at a friend’s house.

PragerU, Fredrick Douglass
by Sharelle B. McNair

August 12, 2023

PragerU Hosts Animated Video Of Frederick Douglass Calling Slavery A ‘Compromise’

The right-wing advocacy group, PragerU, has reached a new low.

Videos from its educational entertainment program, PragerU Kids, show misleading and inaccurate information, including a video of abolitionist Frederick Douglass describing slavery as a “compromise between the Founding Fathers and the Southern colonies for the benefit of the U.S.,” NBC News reports. The video, Leo & Layla Meet Frederick Douglass, shows two children going back in time to meet the civil rights icon.

Fellow abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison is also criticized in the video. Critics deemed it propaganda with an alleged reference to the 2020 police brutality protests. Douglass can be heard saying, “William refuses all compromise, demands immediate change, and if he doesn’t get what he wants, he likes to set things on fire.”

The PragerU programming has received major backlash as CEO Marissa Streit announced in July that the group is providing supplemental lessons to Florida as an education vendor. In defense of the content, Streit says some educational material can be viewed as offensive and said critics have only read one version of history—a progressive one. “I challenge those same people to look through every word that Scholastic has printed or, or every word that BrainPOP has published, and tell me that you’re not going to find something that you are not offended by,” Streit said.

“But you know, I completely stand by what’s in our videos. I actually think that our Frederick Douglass video is a great one.”

In a recent announcement from the Florida Board of Education, content from PragerU, which is unaccredited, was approved for classroom use, according to the Pensacola News Journal. “We have seen that our schools have been hijacked by the left,” the statement reads. “They have been politicized, they have been used by union bosses, they have been doing everything under the sun not for our children.”

Other offensive content on the PragerU Kids page includes a video entitled “Los Angeles: Mateo Backs the Blue,” where viewers follow Mateo, an animated 13-year-old student and son of Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles, as he navigates the issues between police and Black Lives Matter protestors. According to the website, the lesson is to “teach middle and high school kids how the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and anti-police sentiment affected crime, families, and small businesses in American cities.”

RELATED CONTENT: 10 Million Names Project Digs Into History Of Black Families

Buster Skrine
by Iman Milner

August 12, 2023

Ex-NFL Player Buster Skrine Arrested For Alleged Bank Fraud Throughout Canada

Former NFL defensive back for the Tennessee Titans, Buster Skrine, was arrested in Canada after allegedly defrauding banks throughout the country. According to TMZ, the 34-year-old obtained nearly $100,000 from several financial institutions and now faces 14 charges, including possessing property obtained by crime.

As part of his alleged crimes, Skrine would use his former affiliation with the NFL to open bank accounts with fraudulent checks and withdraw part of the cash before the funds cleared.

The Durham Regional Police Service suspects that Skrine carried out the scheme many times before being caught. He was charged with four counts of fraud over $5,000, seven counts of making false statements to produce money, three counts of possession of property obtained by a crime over $5,000, and one count of possession of property obtained by a crime over $5,000. “The suspect had made travel arrangements to return to the United States on August 9, 2023,” the police statement read. “DRPS Fraud Investigators worked in conjunction with Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection as well as Peel Regional Police and arrested the suspect last night at Pearson International Airport.” According to CBS Sports, the elaborate deception began in September 2022 and continued throughout most of 2023.

Skrine was held on bail; however, police did not reveal the amount publicly. “The investigators are still going through the evidence that they have,” said Sergeant Joanne Bortoluss. “If that evidence leads to grounds for additional charges then additional charges would be laid. However, that part of the investigation is still ongoing.” This isn’t the first time the former player has been the subject of fraudulent activity. According to Jet X, Skrine had been accused of promising ticket packages to friends and former teammates at discounted rates; however, after funds were collected, he’d disappear without a word.

Throughout his 11-season career, the defensive back found a home with the Cleveland Browns, the New York Jets, and the San Francisco 49ers. His league earnings reportedly neared $40.37 million. In July 2022, Skrine announced his retirement from the NFL.

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