Tag: Minister of Information JR

"George and I" is Jahi and producer Korise' Big Tunes' newest creation where Jahi is rhyming to Korise's George Benson remake tracks. It's hot and innovative. I haven't heard a dedication/concept album like this. It feels good to be hearing these guys push Bay Area hip hop to new limits.

Legendary Frisco rapper Black C has out-survived two of his group mates in Ruthless By Law (R.B.L.), Mr. Cee and Hitman (RIP), who were murdered at different times, and still continues to put out good music and has another powerhouse squad under construction, The Malitia.

T-Kash, the former local television star from KRON's First Cut turned internationally known rap star on Paris' political label Guerrilla Funk Recordings, is a very under-rated voice and mind in Bay Area and international hip hop. His international debut, "Turf War Syndrome," is a classic that not many people in the hood are up on.

Hardworking is an understatement when you talk about Acktup, who has released a new album every three months since he started releasing music. All of his albums have sold at least a thousand copies a piece, with "1000 Degrees" selling 3,000 copies. "No Competition" and "King Mentality" is currently in stores, while he is still in the lab cookin' up "Mobbin Like Me," which is due out in August.

On March 21, 2009, a sunny Saturday afternoon, Lovelle Mixon killed four Oakland police officers before being shot to death. Featured in this broadcast quality video are Lovelle's cousin, Minister of Information JR and Bakari Olatunji.

Everybody out Monday, May 18, 8am-5pm, when the cop who killed Oscar Grant goes to court at 12th & Oak, Oakland, and Thursday, May 21, for Minister of Information JR Valrey's next hearing in the trumped up felony arson case from Jan. 7, when he was covering the first of three Oakland Rebellions protesting the police murder of Oscar Grant.

On a windy April 24th, hundreds gathered into Humanist Hall on the periphery of downtown Oakland to celebrate the 55th birthday of Mumia Abu Jamal, a former Black Panther who has been a political prisoner for the last 28 years, as well as celebrate the release of his newest book, "Jailhouse Lawyers," published by City Lights (www.citylights.com).

It's the party of parties! Celebrate Mumia's birthday and the release of his new book, "Jailhouse Lawyers," this Friday, 4/24, 6:30pm, Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland, with keynote speaker prison abolitionist Prof. Angela Davis, Min. of Info. JR, Mistah F.A.B., Chela Simone, Kiilu Nyasha, Tiny of Poor, Molotov Mouths, Adimu of Hairdoo and many more.

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.

Ebony Colbert Sparks is one of the most talented writers that I've met. She is the personification of "you can do anything you put your mind to."

We want to call the names of those who made their transition in January and offer condolences to their loved ones who have yet to cross that bridge. I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that Ave Montague is gone.

The report that went around the world was that over 300 businesses were destroyed; the actual damage was 40-45 windows smashed and a couple of dozen garbage cans thrown into the streets.

The only journalist arrested while covering the Jan. 7 rebellion and one of only three protesters charged with a felony was POCC Minister of Information JR. Charged with arson (of a trash can), he is totally innocent. Tell Mayor Dellums, DA Orloff and Rep. Lee to drop all charges against all protesters.

Grant pleaded with officers not to harm him: "Oscar yelled, 'You shot me. I got a 4-year-old daughter,'" said Fernando Anicete. "Oscar was telling us to calm down, and we did. We weren't looking for any trouble."

The Chauncey Bailey Project was never about honoring and continuing the work of the late journalist Chauncey Wendell Bailey Jr. and answering questions regarding his death, as it claims on its website. The project and the Oakland police seem to have more of a lynch mob mentality in their investigation.

A lot of people who met Tupac Shakur say he was such a one-of-a-kind person that you walked away knowing that he was going to make history. I never met Pac, but I could say the same about Malik Yusef, the Wordsmith, from the Rollin' Hundreds in Chicago.

On Saturday, Aug. 30, on the South Side of Chicago, in the Negro League Club aka the POCC's "Lamp Post," the 60th anniversary celebration of the birth of Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party kicked off with a film festival and ended with a Chairman Fred Hampton Streetz Party on Chairman Fred Hampton Way.

On Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008, between 1 and 2 p.m., Nadra Foster, a young Black woman programmer and single mother, was beaten to the ground by the Berkeley police, arrested, hog-tied and taken to jail, after the management of KPFA radio and the Pacifica Foundation had called the police on her, falsely accusing her of being "banned" from the station.

As pointed out in the Black Waxx Multimedia, Inc., film "Disappearing Voices: The Decline of Black Radio," it is not simply the artists or the jocks who are disappearing. Nor is it simply their absence that renders Black radio impotent. It is the fact that the voice of the community they represent has no forum.

The Prisoners of Conscience Committee delegation from the United States returned recently from a fact-finding mission in El Salvador. We were in three cities - San Salvador, Suchitoto and Sansonate - and we talked to former combatants, government officials, union leaders, community leaders, members of street organizations, former political prisoners and more. One of my favorite groups that we met was Radio Zurda, a collective of youth who do a political radio show heard in El Salvador and Honduras, targeted towards a youth audience.