Daily Archives: February 3, 2016

West Coast Hip Hop is going through a renaissance of new voices with people like Trill Youngins, Anderson Paak, Vince Staples, Nef the Pharoh, Cousin Fik and Oakland’s DB Tha General. I became aware of DB Tha General because the streets was talking, but I heard his music for the first time when my cousin Smock pulled up “Mac Blast” on YouTube and told me that this was one of the coldest battle/diss records ever produced from out of the Bay.

There are so many untold stories of how and why people become un-housed. Loss of a job, a partner, the onset of an illness or a crisis, but most of the time, in the Bay Area, it’s because of a greed-inspired landlord raising rent, evicting for profit so he or she can house the droves of 20-30-something wealthy, mostly white people streaming into town for the tech industry.

Rev. Edward Pinkney is the kind of preacher that Martin Luther King would have admired. Pinkney has for years advocated for his community, fighting for water rights, fair elections and social justice for the people of Benton Harbor, Michigan. Because of his political activities, he’s been targeted by the government, tried by the Michigan political machine before an all-white jury and, with no evidence, convicted of allegedly altering five petition dates!

It has often been said that one who has never known the pain of struggle can never truly appreciate the sweet taste of success. Denise Smith knows that struggle. Born in the San Francisco General Hospital and reared in Bayview-Hunters Point, the real estate entrepreneur has certainly experienced her share of ups and downs. Her new autobiography, “Rags to Real Estate: One Woman’s Journey to Empowerment,” inspired many.