By: James Harris

One of the most anticipated albums in years drops tomorrow June 15, 2010.  Drake releases his first studio album, Thank Me Later, and as I predicted the critics have gone on a rampage.  There are mixed reviews over the album some saying that it has “let them down” or that it “didn’t own up to the expectations”.  The question is did Drake even have a chance to meet expectations with this album?  He’s been the hottest rapper in the game for the last year and a half, everyone and their grandmother has been waiting for this album, he’s been deemed the golden child of hip hop, and even greats like Jay-Z have co-signed him.  That’s like Barry Sanders saying some high school kid is going to be the best running back ever to play the game of football.  How do you own up to that?  What did people expect from Drake?  A friend of mine told me he thought that Drake’s album should have been more raw and uncut for a rookie album but instead it came off confident and more laid back.  People are failing to realize that Drake isn’t some unpolished rookie rapper off the streets of Toronto he’s been making music, he’s been in the spotlight, and he’s made money in the past.  He put out a mixtape that sounded like an album, booked a nationwide tour off that mixtape, and got signed off that mixtape. So Far Gone was the 5^th highest selling rap album of 2009 and it was only a mixtape!  Drake’s singles “Best I Ever Had” and “Successful” as well as his feature on “Every Girl” were smash hits of last year.  Bottom-line Drake has already had his rookie year we just didn’t recognize it.  Don’t get it twisted though Thank Me Later is still extremely introspective and raw in its own way but Drake has matured with his success and you can hear it in the lyrics and song choices.

In waiting for the album the only thing I worried about was that Drake was going to stray away from the format of So Far Gone and try something off the wall that fans were not going to accept.  Luckily he didn’t he stuck with what works and put together a quality album with great production and features that added to (but didn’t overpower) the project.  The album spans the emotional spectrum from victory to heartbreak in the 14 track playlist.  Drake allows the listener into his world of fortune and fame and the issues that come with it in “Fireworks” where he worries that his success will change relationships with his closest friends. Tracks like “Karaoke” and “The Resistance” show his internal struggle with trying not to change as he continues to grow in the spotlight.  The cocky more confident Drake comes out in tracks like his single “Over” and “Up all Night (ft. Nicki MInaj)”.  Drake holds his own on tracks with features by heavy weights such as Jay-Z, T.I., Jeezy, and label mate Lil Wayne.  Even though it seems that people were expecting Drake to jump out of their iPods in a “f@ckin red jacket and some zippers” and perform the album as a hologram in order for him to meet their expectations I personally am happy with the album. So I’ll thank Drake now for good music.  Album drops tomorrow go get it.

Favorite Tracks:

Fireworks, Show Me A Good Time, Light Up (ft. Jay-Z), Miss Me (ft. Lil Wayne), Thank Me Now

Tracklist

1. Fireworks (featuring Alicia Keys)
2. Karaoke
3. The Resistance
4. Over
5. Show Me a Good Time
6. Up All Night (featuring Nicki Minaj)
7. Fancy (featuring T.I. and Swizz Beatz)
8. Shut It Down (featuring The Dream)
9. Unforgettable (featuring Young Jeezy)
10. Light Up (featuring Jay-Z)
11. Miss Me (featuring Lil Wayne)
12. Cece’s Interlude
13. Find Your Love
14. Thank Me Now

News Website THE WEEK says:

A Swiss company has begun selling extra-small condoms—called “Hotshots” — made for boys as young as 12, after a government study found that adolescents in Switzerland are not using proper protection when having sex. The Swiss Aids Federation and family planning groups pushed for the smaller condoms—which for now are only being sold in Switzerland—on the theory that teens would be more likely to wear Hotshots, which are 1.7 inches wide, than standard condoms, which are 2 inches wide. Will marketing condoms to 12 year olds keep them safe, or just encourage them to have sex?

Selling kids tiny starter condoms is ’so wrong’: This sends the “worst possible message” to boys, says Rachel Henwood. “Randy pint-sized” men already see sex everywhere, and think it’s cool. Tell 12-year-old boys that having sex is okay as long as you put on a Hotshot, and they’ll run out looking “for 12-year-old (or God forbid, younger) girls to test them out on.”

The idea of extra-small condoms is disturbing … but smart: “As much as the idea of a 12-year-old having sex makes me uncomfortable,” says Ronda Kaysen, “I think this is great. Kids are having sex whether we like it or not,” so making a condom they can actually use is a necessary part of any effort to protect them from sexually transmitted disease and unwanted pregnancy.

Technology isn’t the answer: Getting engineers to design a “training-wheel condoms” won’t solve the tween sex problem, says Rod Dreher. In fact, when you have enough sexually active 12-year-old boys to “economically justify the manufacture of training-wheel condoms,” your society’s troubles probably run “far deeper” than you think.
___

Aerial of The Black Intel says:

We have to teach safe sex somehow. Just because we are not talking to the kids doesn’t mean they aren’t doing it. How old were you when you first started having sex? Come on, be honest. Not the age you tell your aunt or your sex partner… the REAL number. Ok now subtract five years from that and that is the average age kids these days are having their first sexual encounter. Protecting THEM helps to protect US… think about it.

From cbs news

Posted by Brian Montopoli

There was a moment in Sunday night’s “60 Minutes” piece on revelations from the 2008 presidential campaign in which Steve Schmidt, John McCain’s former top campaign strategist, was asked if the choice of Sarah Palin “was about winning an election, not necessarily about who’s gonna be best as vice president.”

“My job was to give political advice,” Schmidt responded. “We needed to do something bold to try to win the race.”

That exchange is worth remembering when considering the controversy that broke over the weekend involving Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who, it was revealed, privately stated that he believed Barack Obama was well suited to a presidential run because he is a “light-skinned” African American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”

Reid, an early Obama backer, immediately apologized “for offending any and all Americans, especially African Americans for my improper comments,” but that didn’t stop Republicans from pouncing on the comments and calling for Reid’s resignation from the Senate leadership. They drew comparisons to Trent Lott’s 2002 comments that America would have been better off had then-segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond been elected president in 1948, which resulted in Lott being forced to leave the GOP leadership.

There was a clear difference between the comments, of course: While Lott’s words could be interpreted as an argument that segregationist policies would have been better for America than the alternative, Reid was discussing a political calculus. Like Schmidt, his thinking seemed largely confined to the realm of politics.

On NBC’s “Today” show Monday, Matt Lauer asked PBS’ Gwen Ifill this question: “Isn’t Harry Reid implying that a dark-skinned African American who speaks in a way that some would consider more stereotypical would not be electable?”

Ifill’s response? Well, yes. Because it’s true.

“There is actual political science that backs that up,” said Ifill, who is black. “I don’t know that Harry Reid has read it, and what Harry Reid said was certainly impolitic, at least, but there is evidence to support that people – whether it is a matter of voting for a white candidate or voting for a black candidate – if a person is very much different than who they are, or what they perceive the mainstream to be, they are less likely to vote for that person.”

Indeed, what Reid has now said publicly is what everyone in Washington was saying privately as Mr. Obama prepared his run – it’s just that he seems to be the only one whose words eventually became public.

Well, maybe not the only one: The best comparison to Reid’s comments is not what Lott said but rather comments by then-candidate Joe Biden, who in 2007 said Mr. Obama was “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

Biden came under criticism for the comment, but the controversy didn’t endure – and Biden, of course, has gone on to have a pretty close relationship with Mr. Obama.

Reid was right to apologize for his comments: As we’ve seen with the recent census flap, many are offended by the word “negro,” and notions of “light skin” and a certain type of black dialect raise legitimate questions about America’s still-unsettled relationship with race. (Wrote black historian Blair LM Kelley: “I find it horrifying that fair-skinned blacks are seen as more acceptable candidates in the 21st century.”)

But Mr. Obama is too savvy a politician not to see the basic truth in Reid’s comments, which is part of the reason why he was quick to accept his apology. (It also didn’t hurt, of course, that Mr. Obama needs Reid in place for final passage of the health care bill, along with a host of other issues.) As Ifill went on to point out on “Today,” someone who looks and sounds like Al Sharpton is a harder sell to the American people than someone who looks and sounds like Mr. Obama. (Indeed, Sharpton is among the black leaders who are largely backing Reid.)

Or, as Joan Walsh of the liberal online magazine Salon put it: “if progressive racial-justice Democrats don’t think politicians of every race size up the field in terms of competitive advantage — and sadly, even today, accord advantage to African-Americans who put white folks at ease, speak ‘white’ or ’standard’ English, and even, yes, look ‘less non-white’ — we’re kidding ourselves.”

Effects of Hip Hop Video Images

For a long time researchers suggested that Black Women were not affected by media images at all (Poran 2000). It was thought that Black women were protected by a “racial subculture” that guarded them from negative body images. However when more in-depth studies were conducted, different conclusions were formed.

Princeton professor, Melissa Harris-Lacewell breaks down the concept of fictive kinship and how it applies to African Americans, and more specifically Black women and media images.

Check Harris-Lacewell full presentation above

Harris-Lacewell says that the story of any one person in a marginalized group successful or not, has an effect on the ethnicity as a whole. Just as a Black role models have a positive effect on African Americans, negative images, or images that don’t measure up to the standard of the roles models, can have a shaming effect. This point is especially important in looking at the images of African American women in videos. When Black women appear in music videos in sexually submissive and misogynistic environments, the whole of the race feels the affects of each women’s transgressions.

These images promote a psychological effect of shame that the Black women community feel as a whole. The shaming effect has little to do with whether or not the Black woman participates in the culture that is promoting the negative images and all to do with the fact that you are Black. For the near fact that all African American women are connected through this fictive kinship, when a Black woman views a music video, apart of herself is affected.

To further expound on the affects of Black women images have on the mental and emotional well-being of Black women, a study called, The Politic of Protection: Body Image, Social Pressures and the Misrepresentation of Young Black Women was conducted. The study suggested that Black Women were less likely to feel little to any emotional response to seeing pictures of white woman, however produce deep emotional responses to seeing images of Black women in the media (Poran 2006).

Another study in 2003, tracked the impact of Rap music videos on African American Adolescents’ Health[1]. The study enrolled 522 single African American females between the ages of 14-18 from December 1996 through April 1999. Of the females that enrolled 92.2% completed the 12-month follow up.The average amount of Rap Videos watched at the 12-month check in were 12 hour per week. In that time 37.6% acquired a new sexually transmitted disease, 4.8% hit a teacher, 12.1% reported being arrested, 14.8% had sexual intercourse with someone other than their steady partner, 44.2% reported using drugs and 44.4% consumed alcohol. Compared to the adolescents that had less exposure to rap music videos, the study group were 3 times as likely to hit a teacher, more than twice as likely to be arrested, 2 times as likely to have multiple sex partners, and 1.5 times more likely to have and STI.

The bombardment of negative images of Black women provided in music videos, coupled with the lack of positive images to compensate (Ward, Hansbrough & Walker 2005, Jones and Shooter-Gooden 2004) produce psychological responses that can lead to low self-esteem and low self worth among African American women (Harris-Lacewell, Ward, Hansbrough & Walker 2005).

The effects of low self worth on African American women

A negative body image of oneself can lead to destructive behavior, acceptance of violence and other unhealthy choices (Wingood et al. 2002, Shambley-Ebron 2008, Ward, Hansbrough & Walker 2005, Wingood et al. 2003)

In terms of sexual health and HIV/AIDS there is direct connection between body image and the willingness to engage in risky behaviors (Wingood et al 2002). A study looking at HIV/AIDS prevention for African American girls suggest that exposure to repeated negative media images at a young age might influence their sexual decision and identity (Shambley-Ebron, 2009). It’s not hard to conclude that there is a correlation between seeing repeated negative images, like the ones portrayed in rap music, and uptake in risky behavior.

When looking at tolerance to violence, young female who watched rap videos were more likely to be accepting of teen violence than they were before watching the video (Johnson et al. 1995). One of the reasoning behind this phenomenon is that females watching other females in subordinate position were more likely to feel that that was a women’s place (Johnson et al.1995). Women who don’t value themselves or other women are less likely to value their safety or other women’s safety women it comes to domestic violence.

African American women, who suffer from low self worth and self-image, might also indulge in “corrective behavior” (Hall 1995).  Some of these include cosmetic surgery, use of skin cream, eating disorders as well as psychology issues such as depression, self-hate and obsessive compulsive disorders (Hall 1995).

Robillard, and Edward W. Hook, III.2003 A Prospective Study of Exposure to Rap Music Videos and

African American Female Adolescents’ Health, American Journal of Public Health, 93 (3):437–440.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/10/cornel-west-comments-on-o_n_316476.html

Dr. Cornel West spoke at the Central Library in Los Angeles Friday, Oct. 9, and weighed in on what winning the Nobel Peace Prize will mean for President Obama.

The Princeton University professor and civil rights activist pointed to Obama’s position as commander

Terril Jamon Douglas

You might be asking yourself whats wrong with your outfit and I would be inclined to say nothing because I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. I did notice however went I went into the Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton California that other people looked like they had an issue with my outfit judged by all the stares I was receiving. I am sure there was assumptions made about my long chain my calm demeanor and my strong stride but I didn’t care. I don’t understand how we are in 2009 and still hung up on images especially in a public setting such as a mall. With the first Black president governing over this country when are people going to realize Blacks come in different shapes, sizes behavior patterns, mentalities we are not all the same so you shouldn’t treat us as such. You may have no idea of what I am speaking of especially if you grew up with a privileged background, but take a look at this video and you tell me if things start to make sense.

Charles E. Phillips - Black Ops

Its my sentiment that the media in America doesn’t do a good job in showing the varying faces of Black people in America. They would have you believe there were only two types of Blacks that exist in this country. Those that have obtained the ultimate American Dream and those that have a more difficult time obtaining the American Dream. While the idea of obtaining this American dream can be seen as mundane I am using the idea of the American Dream to symbolize wanting more for yourself then what you are given. Wanting more for yourself can come as a steady growth in your finances, obtaining education or just investing time with your family. But I feel many in our inner cities have a mentality that excludes them from obtaining the American Dream. It was rapper Biggie Smalls that described the epitome of this mentality in his song Things Done Changed“ Either your slingin’ crack, rock or you got a wicked jump shot.”

Its more then 10 years later after he delivered this rhyme and things haven’t changed much. For some reason some Black folks in this country still suffer from the prison that Willie Lynch introduced during the time of slavery that has kept Blacks from reaching their full potential. We can thank Willie Lynch for establishing a mental prison that plagues many Black in America. Lynch’s letter to slave owners describs how to break down the slave, it depicts the effects of this process as “self refueling and self generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousands”. Mr. Lynch definitely had the time line correct because some Black people still use every organ in their body except the one that counts in between their ears. It probably doesn’t help that our public school system under performs against most developed countries. Some of our children are plagued with the inability to read so they will never know of the great deeds and feats people in their blood line have accomplished in this country. Its so easy for me to see the bigger picture but I digress. The purpose of this section is to shed light on those people I refer to as The Black-Ops. This will be a monthly column I will update with todays Black Ops Hopefully this will help us to understand the images of Blacks beaten each other to death or not marrying certain infamous Armenians aren’t the only faces of Blacks in America. I would like to start this column off with introducing you to Mr. Charles E Phillips Jr. the President of Oracle.

For those of you not familiar with the software giant. Oracle Corporation in Redwood City Ca, is responsible for many of todays industry leader’s customer management systems and Hr management systems as well. Chances are if you enter your time at work on a computer, or have purchased anything online at your favorite shopping website you have interacted with an Oracle product. Signing on with Oracle in 2004 Charles E. Phillips is the current President of the company. I wonder how many times in a board meeting a fellow Caucasian executive has accused Mr. Phillips of lying. Charles E Phillips born in Arkansas in 1960 graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy with a B.S. Degree in computer science. He later moved onto the U.S. Marine Corps to become a Captain. He would eventually leave the US Marine Corps to pursue an MBA from Hampton University finally ending his academic pursuits with a JD from New York Law School. Maybe he wasn’t sure where he was going to end up but after completing his law degree he took and passed the bar in “Chocolate City”, Washington DC and Georgia. In 1994 he would join the financial sector as a software industry analyst for Morgan Stanley(a stock firm brokerage). He must have been very successful because as one of their technical czars he was given his own toll-free number 1800MRCHUCK, “Chuck” being his nickname.

The financial sector had so much praise to give Mr. Phillips that they recommended him to Oracle in 2003, to help restore credibility to the technological firm. In 2003, Phillips would move to the West Coast to join Oracles top executives. He currently sits on multiple boards including media giant Viacom Corporation, New York Law School and Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has been featured in magazines such as Black Enterprise and Forbes as one of the most influential executives in the nation. In February of this year he was appointed as a member to the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board to provide President Obama and his administration with advice and counsel in fixing America’s economic downturn. He has cemented his position as a Black Op and his drive and tenacity can only serve as an example for us to the feats possible when you use the organ between your ears.

so…in the past week or so i have been having an ongoing convo with a  dear friend…no brother of mine who is an awesome guy…college educated…great sense of humor…incredibly intelligent…great dad…cool on the dance floor (hehe)…just an all around good guy (yes he has his flaws but dont we all?)…in the same time…well actually longer…i have been having a similar convo with my sister…the topic at hand you ask?  why (full) Black on (full) Black love very seldom last in our generation…a friend of mine posted an
article of a (full) Black on (full) Black couple who had been married for 84 years…me being in my…eehh er um…mid to late 20’s…ive already missed that option (i would have to live to be over

100!)…shoot…many of us can barely make the year mark…so here i have copied and pasted my response to my broham after he commented on my post assuming i was trying to say it was all the mans fault…quite contrary…i am definitely NOT one of those man hating women who thinks women are totally free of blame from all failed relationships…after all…there are always two sided to every story…enjoy…more to come…

…you need a hug? LOL!…i was not assigning any blame in this post (however…if you look down a few post…feel free to answer the question posed to men, hehe…) i was simply saying instead of sistas giving up all hope and calling it quits…look to the elder for inspiration…cause…its possible! though for many of us we are too old to hit that good 84 year mark…and i am not one to always side with women when it comes to failed relationships…i like to look at BOTH sides! so HA! yes…we hold on to things because those things affect us deeply while you all just dont give a rats a$$ at times (unless she sleeps with another man, then all hell breaks lose!)…men…no brothas need to realize that Black women are just as
sensitive, emotional, gentle and vulnerable as any other woman and should be treated with the utmost respect and care because JUST like you all are dealing with “the Black man struggle” (which i am not at
all discrediting, because i know you all have it hard) we have our own struggles and at the end of the day look to our men for understanding, compassion, and love. but i think you all are SO quick to think that just because we are strong Black women we dont need and yearn for those things. THATS where the fighting begins….neither side wants to be vulnerable and understanding of the others plight in the world…until we can do that for one another and learn to EFFECTIVELY communicate…we will never make it to the 84 year mark. this was a lot…but you know you cant make a statement like that without me coming back! LOL! see ya tonight broham!

*to clarify…i have (full) in parenthesis because for a lot of Black men…mixed women are replacing full Black women in their feeble attempt to say “she is Black…her daddy is Black”…or “she
identifies with Black”…i think and FULL Black woman can tell you that the treatment of a mixed race woman is 9 times out of 10 very different than that of a FULL Black woman based solely on the
assumptions and standards held by not only Black men, but Black
women…but thats for next month!

~stay classy

By: Associated Press

DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Saturday resumed his push to overhaul the health care system, telling a Congressional Black Caucus conference that there comes a time when “the cup of endurance runs over.”

“We have been waiting for health reform since the days of Teddy Roosevelt. We’ve been waiting since the days of Harry Truman,” he said in remarks at the caucus foundation’s annual dinner. “We’ve been waiting since Johnson and Nixon and Clinton.”

“We cannot wait any longer,” Obama said.

Obama spent the past week largely focused on global and economic issues in meetings with world leaders in New York and Pittsburgh.

At the G-20 economic summit that wrapped up Friday in Pennsylvania, Obama told a story about an unnamed foreign leader who privately told the president he didn’t understand the at-times contentious debate over changing the health care system.

“He says, ‘We don’t understand it. You’re trying to make sure everybody has health care and they’re putting a Hitler mustache on you. That doesn’t make sense to me,’” Obama said, quoting the world leader he declined to identify.

The reference to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was to signs some people have waved outside of often testy town hall meetings around the country this summer where lawmakers discussed Obama’s health care plan.

In the speech, Obama described his plan as one that would not require people with coverage to change anything but would make health insurance affordable for the millions of people who don’t have any. Republicans dispute those claims.

The Senate Finance Committee is in the process of amending a health care bill introduced by Chairman Max Baucus.

Before becoming president, Obama was the only senator in the all-Democratic caucus, which now has 42 members. He wasn’t particularly active in the group and isn’t especially close to many of its members.

Animosity toward the president and his policies has bubbled up in recent weeks, most notably with Rep. Joe Wilson shouting “You lie!” at Obama during the president’s recent health care speech to Congress.

Democrats from former President Jimmy Carter on down have blamed the increasingly harsh criticism of Obama on racism.

Obama says it’s not racism but an intense debate over the proper role of government.
Before he began to speak, Obama walked to a podium facing the audience from the right side of the stage before he was directed to another one — the one affixed with the presidential seal — on stage left.

“They don’t want me to be on the right,” he joked. “This is the CBC.”

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

One of the first Black Super Models has passed away. Naomi Sims died of cancer August 1, 2009.

Sim’s broke color lines in the modeling world and coped the honor spot on the cover of lifetime magazine in 1969. In addition to she was the first black women to make it on to the cover of Ladies Home Journal.

After encountering racism in Hollywood, Sims decided to start her own business. In 1973 she started her own wig company which became wildly successful.  Sim’s expanded her business to include cosmetics, books and hair care products. Sim’s was 61.

To learn more about the life and story of the first Black Super Model check out the New York Times article here

To Check Out her site and products here