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All gas – no brakes: an inner-view of Oakland rapper Shady Nate
May 9, 2009
Oakland has always been filled wit’ a gang of lyrical MC’s that “gas” ever since Hip Hop really got started in the Bay. Shady Nate is somebody that I could easily see being the King of Bay Area rap in a couple of years.
‘Oakland at war, a civil war, us against the authorities’
April 23, 2009
“It’s a civil war, us against the authorities – if you get pulled over, you’re so afraid for your life that you’re going to react as someone would react in war. A random traffic stop is life or death now.” – Mistah F.A.B., interviewed by Davey D
The ambivalent silences of the left: Lovelle Mixon, police and the politics of race and rape
April 21, 2009
Many TV channels broadcast live the entire funeral for four Oakland police officers killed March 21, news anchors calling them “heroes” and “angels.” Police funerals are intended to legitimize past and future police violence and tell the public to shut up. The spineless left complies – no mention of Oscar Grant … or Lovelle Mixon.
‘Rebel Musiq’: an innerview of rapper Bicasso of the Living Legends
April 17, 2009
Two decades after Bob Marley’s “Rebel Music,” in 2009 Oakland, artists like Bicasso are the musical spokespeople for criminalized Black neighborhoods that are literally at war with the police; must I remind you of the cases of Oscar Grant and Lovelle Mixon?
‘Chasing Demons’: an innerview of DJ Twelvz
April 17, 2009
DJ Twelvz is one of the up and coming dj’s in the Bay Area who has one foot in conscious circles and the other within street rap. In my opinion, this is where the movement needs to go.
The Black Hole at KPFA
April 14, 2009
Is the Black community supposed to be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of KPFA when our community is not deemed important enough to be given a public affairs show? “Shut up and keep dancing” is what KPFA’s management team is telling the Black community.
The Town in chaos: an interview wit’ rapper Beeda Weeda
April 9, 2009
While the world was watching downtown Oakland burn up in the aftermath of the police murder of Oscar Grant III, rappers Beeda Weeda and J-Stalin put their social commentary into 16 rhyming bars and came out with the Town masterpiece “We Ain’t Listening,” the remix. Listen at www.blockreportradio.com.
Karmic justice
April 7, 2009
Most people of color know that the cops, and police departments as institutions, historically represent the street enforcement arm of white American racism. Indeed, the police were born out of the white slave patrols.
If you want peace, fight for justice
March 31, 2009
A time bomb is ticking, waiting to explode in communities of color across the nation. Law enforcement officers have become an occupation force. If we are to have peace, we first must place economic justice at the top of our agenda. The day Lovelle Mixon died, those close to him mentioned two explanations: He dreaded being sent back to prison yet he couldn’t find a job.
Kill and be killed: Police murders in Oakland
March 26, 2009
Police are virtually an occupying military force in Black urban centers. Their presence will neither eliminate the plague of rampant crime nor address the underlying disease of extreme impoverishment.
Oakland’s civil war: the people vs. the police
March 25, 2009
The reason why so many people may have appeared gleeful at the killing by Lovelle Mixon of four Oakland cops is that the police have for so long looked at various communities as less than human.
An infamous legend is born and a community is under siege
March 24, 2009
Lovelle Mixon – the suspected shooter behind the deaths of four Oakland police officers on Saturday – has joined the pantheon of Black men who have conducted deadly rebellions: Denmark Vesey, Nat Turner, Huey Newton, Jonathan Jackson and Larry Davis.
Police 2, Oakland residents 4
March 24, 2009
On March 21, Lovelle Mixon, 26, was murdered by Oakland police after allegedly killing four of them on MacArthur Blvd off of 73rd Avenue in East Oakland. Listen to JR’s Block Report interview with his family – his mother, Athena, his wife, Amara, and her sister, Alicia – broadcast March 30 on KPFA’s Flashpoints at http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/49609.
Notes from the occupied territories: Black America and the police
March 24, 2009
When the full story is finally told and, though not likely freely admitted by many, deep within the spiritual thinking of numerous African Americans, an emotional candle will be lit in memory of Lovelle Mixon.