FREESPEAK BY JOHNNY SPANONE

In 2005 Lawrence Chris Parker, aka KRS 1, was quoted on the blog, Basis,  D.L. Chandler's frequent thoughts on the world of hip hop and beyond , stating that he wasn't shocked by the media's obsession with the violence in Hip-hop because it often gave them good stories to report on, and continued by referring to hip hop as a microwave culture that expected information hastily, plus didn't care to substantiate the information before accepting it as the truth. With this, we can clearly identify how the legendary Bronx rapper felt about the way the media portrayed hip-hop to its viewers as a violent culture just to gain a larger viewership leading to profit, at the expense of the culture's perceived moral stance from the public point of view as a whole. Thus, it wouldn't be far-fetched to assume that during the mid-'90s, the media's propagated East-West conflict that was ongoing between rappers wouldn't have impressed KRS 1, who was by the time actively...

Mary Magdalene is a Kenyan song by Johnny Span-one and Kunta. The song is a fictional story about a girl who gets defiled and defamed by her boyfriend when she leaves him to pursue a new relationship with the character portrayed by Johnny Span One in the song. The artists go on to name the girl Mary Magdalene in the chorus. This is done to relate her predicament to the circumstances that befell the biblical character she is named after. The Biblical Mary Magdalene is a woman whose character has been defamed falsely. All through later history, the very spreaders of the gospel claimed she was a prostitute. Surprisingly enough, the claim is not supported nor implied in the Holy book. The clergymen only propagated the rumor because the Bible also shows her close relationship with Jesus, which rubbed them wrongly. The preachers did not favor the idea of a woman being too close to their spiritual father. Kunta in verse 3 takes the role of the jealous boyfriend and tries to explain the chara...

In the late sixties, a bunch of children from rival gangs met at Hoe Avenue to broker a peace treaty, and later this became the platform where hip hop was birthed.  When the gangs got together, violence was not condoned. When they had disputes, they traded beatdowns for rap battles and b-boying competitions. This just shows the role unity had to play in order for the creation of hip hop to occur. We have to peep the past and reflect so that we can remind ourselves what favored us and what has always hindered our progress as humans. This is the only way we can learn from our experiences and change to create a better future for our offsprings. But returning to our topic, these days we live in a world that propagates a message of individualism, capitalism, and disunity. Hip hop is not exempted from this propagation and this is reflected in rap lyrics that praise capitalism, greed, and individualism.  Due to this, the rappers of today and the industry movers and shakers have becom...

 As the rap legend, DMX was laid to rest on the 25th of April and all hip hop lovers celebrated his legacy, something amazing happened. At his memorial, an announcement was made but the media outlets were not allowed to broadcast what was said.  Newyork state announced that December 18th which is DMX's birthday will be recognized across the entire state of Newyork as DMX day. Senator Jamaal T Bailey of the Newyork State told the House of the senate," We all can't be the same person all the time, everyone has a DMX moment".  He went on quoting DMX's lose my mind song and asked if there was anybody that was present who had never been in that position and went on in agreement with his statement. The passionate senator who couldn't hide his admiration for the rap legend did not only articulate DMX's lyrics on the floor of the House, and introduced a resolution in the rapper's honor. He went on to say," In Newyork, we have our own Hip hop royalty, He...