Johannesburg

'Bluesologist' Gil Scott-Heron  asks, 'What's the word from Johannesburg? They tell me our brothers over there are defyin' the Man' in the youth uprising of 1976. 'We all need to be strugglin' if we're goin' to be free.' 

Friday Nite Videos -- November 8, 2013

Portside
Jon Stewart -- Affordable Horror Story. Liquid Art. Canned Heat -- Woodstock Boogie. Burn: Detroit Firefighter Documentary. Professor Louie -- What Does it Mean to be Working Class?

Black Eyed Peas -- Where Is the Love?

Lead rapper will.i.am (William Adams) introduces this 2011 performance in New York's Central Park with an impassioned explanation of the debt the Black Eyed Peas owes to immigrants and their supporters: fellow BEP Allan Pineda (apl.de.ap) immigrated "from a third world country."  Where Is the Love was written by Ralph MacDonald and William Salter, and originally performed by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway. For more Songs of Immigration, Deportation and Identity, go here.
 

Dispatches from the Culture Wars – Bad Taste in the Mouth edition

Portside
Reebok drops rapper after date-rape lyrics; Justin Bieber thinks Anne Frank would have been a fan; Trayvon Martin targets used for shooting practice; Mattel won’t make Black Barbie party supplies; Robot warriors coming soon; Indians leave the rez for unhappy city life; Americans still love libraries; Asians shouldn’t start to eat like Americans; The Nordic countries are reinventing their model of capitalism: Discuss!
Subscribe to Rap