Posted by Fleur Delacour | Posted in nicki minaj, Sean Garrett | Posted on 31-03-2010
*Sigh* This girl just won’t go away. Here’s Nicki Minaj and Sean Garrett in their new video “Telephone: The Sequel” “Massive Attack”. Enjoy!
Posted by Witch Hazel | Posted in brew bits, brewshyt, elin, facebook blunder, Jada Pinkett Smith, sandra bullock, shaq, The Hangover, Tyra Banks, What's Brewing, will smith | Posted on 31-03-2010
Will Smith causing trouble at Jada’s job? – In Case You Didn’t Know
Sandra Bullock is ready to quit this bitch? – Examiner
Get ready for The Hangover, part deux – Perez Hilton
5 things people in relationships should not put on Facebook – The Gloss
Is Elin knocked up? – Celebitchy
Shaq texts his jumpoff… and texts just like he talks (he’s no Tiger) – Radar Online
A toilet paper-eating woman? Only on Tyra… – Fail Blog
Posted by Witch Hazel | Posted in black in america, brew commentary, kevin powell | Posted on 31-03-2010
Remember when some thought Kevin Powell was simply the “angry” black guy from The Real World? Well, he’s still angry! Kevin wrote an open letter to black America in the April issue of Ebony magazine. Unfortunately, with the news that Ebony’s readership is dwindling, I’m not sure how many who need to read it actually will. So, we’re posting it here as well. Feel free to leave a comment behind, and share this with those who need to read it.
Open Letter To Black America
By Kevin Powell
DEAR BLACK AMERICA:
This 42nd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is an opportune moment to reflect on how far we’ve come, and how far we have to go. It calls us to reconsider the words Dr. King gave us at the end of his life, when he said that we need “a radical revolution of values.” Certainly, we have much to be proud of. There is the first Black president. There are more Black elected officials, more Blacks in corporate America, the media, and in very real power positions, like Oprah Winfrey, Richard Parsons, Donna Brazile, and Jay-Z.
But, if we are to be brutally honest with ourselves, we’ve also got to acknowledge that things have not been right for some time. The civil rights era concept that our leaders would deliver us into the promised land has devolved into the idea that all we need to do is show up and follow. We have lost the sense of individual responsibility toward collective change.
Think back to the days immediately after slavery, when it was clear that Blacks wanted two things: education and land. In spite of vicious White terrorism, we plodded forward. There was hope, and a vocabulary of purpose. These values emboldened us during the Civil Rights Movement. And they were re-born during the 2008 presidential campaign. Yet, unlike before, many of us have failed to embrace the miraculous kind of self and community transformation that led us to walk, literally, into the teeth of barking dogs, water hoses, and police brutality, mainly because we refused to let anyone turn us around.
Why, politically, did we come out in record numbers for Barack Obama, then instantly return to apathy? Why do we remain suspended in a state of arrested development, believing that a dynamic leader will be our salvation? A civil rights veteran said it best to me many years ago: “We were just happy to get in the door. We never really had a plan beyond that.” So we have to be honest and admit that Black leadership in America, except a few shining examples such as The Brotherhood/Sister Sol in New York City or John Hope Bryant’s Operation Hope, has been too often stuck in yesterday. It has been unable to produce an agenda for Black America that will transform our communities in a holistic way. So we’ve spent 40 years like the Israelites, wandering the wilderness, harboring the misguided expectations that people like Barack, or Oprah, or anyone Black and famous will free us. It simply isn’t going to happen.
And while we’ve been waiting, praying, and producing the same predictable conferences, summits, studies, and reports again and again, Black America is on the brink of catastrophe. We need to remind ourselves that Hurricane Katrina and Haiti’s earthquake only magnify the slow forms of devastation happening each day. They include HIV and AIDS, poverty, Black self-hatred and Black-on-Black violence, the huge class divide, mediocre school systems, and the steady march of our youth into jails and cemeteries. We should stop saying this is a post-racial America because of President Obama. It is not. Despite Barack and Michelle we continue to be bombarded with destructive images of Black people in the mass media. As I travel the country speaking at universities and working for social justice, I note that our prisons are packed with black and brown bodies, and every American ghetto looks exactly the same: a lack of resources, services, and jobs, failing public schools, and limited access to the American dream.
That said, let us no longer wait on a savior to come. Do we want to continue wandering or do we want to create our future here and now? We have the power to transform our communities by enacting those “radical revolution of values.” So I propose six things we must do immediately: Create a Spiritual Foundation; Move Toward Mental Wellness; Take Care of Our Physical Health; Become Politically Active; Understand the Power of Our Culture; and Start a Plan for Economic Empowerment.
Our spiritual foundation must be rooted in God or something greater than us, and a love for self and for all Black folks, unconditionally. It must grow out of our beliefs and our willingness to act selflessly. And it must begin with mental wellness because we cannot stand up for our convictions, our faith, or ourselves if our self-esteem is not in tact. Susan L. Taylor put it best when it comes to our mental health, Black America: healing is the new activism. Be it the increase in domestic violence, homicides and suicides, or the way so many of us say “I can’t” it is clear to me that since the civil rights period our individual and collective psyches have been damaged. But we can heal by seeking counseling and therapy, forming or joining positive support groups, and courageously ridding ourselves of toxic people, even if they are longtime friends, lovers, or kinfolk.
Physically, we can no longer accept that we are pre-destined for diabetes, high-blood pressure, and other ailments. Yes, like all Americans, we should have access to healthcare. But we should also change our diets and exercise regularly. Recently, my mother was hospitalized. After years of sitting on the sofa watching TV and indulging in terrible eating habits, that was her wake-up call. Change your diet and live. Don’t change and die a painful and preventable death, as many of our relatives have.
Taking charge of our health and wellness also means changing the way we discuss our realities in America. Let us stop bemoaning our “crises” and start strategizing to meet our “challenges.” Let us cease spreading reports that compare us unfavorably to our White sisters and brothers. Likewise, our culture, the way we talk, eat, sing, pray, dance, laugh, and cry must become more balanced so that it no longer reflects solely what is wrong with us, but also projects a vision of how great we can become, or are.
Financially, we’ve got to disconnect our self-esteem from our clothes and cars and instead focus on building true wealth. If my illiterate late grandparents could own land in South Carolina, by saving coins in their day, then we can, too. We can use our resources to empower ourselves, to help our ‘hoods, and to support our people. This means doing more than donating to charity. It means a sincere and consistent giving back in terms of time, energy, and presence.
Black America, we’ve been surviving for 400 years in this nation. The question for the twenty-first century is this: Do we want to just survive, or do we want to win? The “radical” answers, if we search hard enough, are right there in our own hands.
Kevin Powell is a writer, activist and author of 10 books, including Open Letters to America. He can be reached at kevin@kevinpowell.net.
NOTE: This essay appears in the April 2010 issue of EBONY magazine. Feel free to post widely AS IS and with proper credit given to Kevin Powell.
Posted by Witch Hazel | Posted in big boi, brew music, janelle monae, nicki minaj, Usher, will.i.am | Posted on 31-03-2010
Usher is hittin’ em hard this week, tryna move these kits. Peep his new vid with will.i.am, “OMG.”
Nicki Minaj continues to attack us with her, um, ass vocals? Here’s her video for “Massive Attack” (feat. Sean Garrett). Is anybody feeling this song though? Reviews have been quite mixed.
*I see you Amber Rose*
And, the uber-talented Janelle Monae has teamed up with Big Boi for her new her video, “Tightrope” (no, not the Kim Zolciak tightrope).
You likey?
Posted by Witch Hazel | Posted in brew music, dr. dre, Jay-Z | Posted on 31-03-2010
Posted by Witch Hazel | Posted in brew music, concert news, concerts, damian marley, Nas | Posted on 31-03-2010
Gas up the spaceship Kelis cuz the checks are finna come in. Nas and Damian Marley are about to hit the road to promote their Distant Relatives collabo.
Here are the tour dates:
May 2010
2 – West Palm Beach, FL – Sunfest
21- Arcata, CA – Arcata Community Center
22 – Eugene, OR – Cuthbert Amphitheater
23 – Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
25 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
26 – Santa Barbara, CA – Univ. of California, Santa Barbara
28 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
29 – Las Vegas, NV – The Joint
30 – Valley Center, CA Harrah’s Rincon – Open Sky Theater
31- Los Angeles, CA UCLA – Jazz Reggae Festival
2 – West Palm Beach, FL – Sunfest
21- Arcata, CA – Arcata Community Center
22 – Eugene, OR – Cuthbert Amphitheater
23 – Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
25 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
26 – Santa Barbara, CA – Univ. of California, Santa Barbara
28 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
29 – Las Vegas, NV – The Joint
30 – Valley Center, CA Harrah’s Rincon – Open Sky Theater
31- Los Angeles, CA UCLA – Jazz Reggae Festival
June 2010
2 – Santa Fe, NM – Paolo Soleri Amphitheatre
8 – Houston, TX – House of Blues
9 – Austin, TX – Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
11 – Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo Music Festival
12 – Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle
13 – Orlando, FL – House of Blues
July 2010
31 – Brooklyn, NY – Williamsburg Waterfront
August 2010
1 – Bridgeport, CT – Gathering of The Vibes Festival
Go here for ticket information.
Posted by Witch Hazel | Posted in Beyonce, Brew Tube, single ladies | Posted on 31-03-2010
Dammit, Beyonce is ruining the youth!
Posted by Witch Hazel | Posted in brewshyt, rape, video game, WTF? Files | Posted on 31-03-2010
As if there isn’t enough smut in video games these days, a new game out of Tokyo called RapeLay is kicking up a sandstorm of Brewshyt. The “game” encourages players to fondle women in crowded subway trains. The player is encouraged to rape young women and even convince them to have abortions if they get knocked up… and thousands of gamers are playing.
#BringBackAtari
Posted by Witch Hazel | Posted in Gabourey Sidibe, Saturday Night Live | Posted on 31-03-2010
On March 14, a Facebook group entitled “We want Gabourey Sidibe to host SNL” launched, with the mission statement of getting the Oscar-nominated “Precious” actress to host the sketch comedy show. Mission accomplished, if early reports are to be believed.E! is reporting that Sidibe will host an episode of “Saturday Night Live” in the coming weeks.
Posted by Witch Hazel | Posted in Eva Marcille, eva pigford, lance gross, Twitter, Twitter is the debbil, Twittervention | Posted on 31-03-2010
Ok, we know ya’ll broke up and all that… but must you put each other on blast on the debbil of the innawebs? Can they just block and unfollow eachother on Twitter already? Damn.
Stay classy my friends!
Image via Corkery/News
Source
Fellas and fella-ish ma’amsirs, step on up and get you one of these here Beyonce blow up dolls, ya know, in case of emergency…… give that hand a rest why don’t cha!
It says she comes with 3 holes, I say 7 if you count the ears and the nostrils like I’ve been known to do (hey don’t look like that, I be trying thangs…. gots ta keep it spicy!)
If it’s real pleasure you’re after, I say play this in the background and make it real sessy!
Posted by Fleur Delacour | Posted in breaking brew, nene leakes | Posted on 31-03-2010
“We fall down, but we get up…” we interrupt the following gospel moment to deliver Breaking Brew about this big-faced sinner who could use some of White Jesus’ blessings! Bryson Bryant a.k.a. NeNe Leakes’ basement baby was arrested last night. T-Painer with the soap opera name turned himself in on an outstanding warrant. That warrant stemmed from an additional charge related to his March 7 arrest for possessing some stanka dank! This studio gangsta needs to go back to that fictional school he was claiming back on RHOA and stop playing with me!
