Black History Month...A Re-Cap

"Without the Dutch...they'd still just be African"



I guess just like certain holidays, whether they be by Hallmark or the government...Black History Month kinda gets pushed to the back of your consciousness as you get older. I mean, lets be real...we don't get any of these 28 days off for anything, neither do our children. None of our favorite stores give us any Black History Month discounts and sheid...the only recognition I've seen the month get this year is VH1 Soul playing a gang of "conscious" songs today. Surely I can't be the only one that feels like Black History Month kinda escapes your conscious after you graduate and enter the real world. Its not like your boss is going to have those little cutouts of Mary McCleod Bethune and Thurgood Marshall hanging on the wall when you come to work in the morning. Which poses another question...is it just me, or did it feel like we just got reminded of same what...15-20 Black people who "did something" when we went to school. I swear every Black History month the teacher would hang up those same drawings of Ralph E. Bunche, Martin Luther King, Booker T. Washington, etc. Hell, those drawings didn't even give you any real insight to that person's contribution, it just told you what year they were born and what year they died. I guess we were just supposed to assume that dash in between was good enough. "What did George Washington Carver do kids?"...DASH!



But yeah, anyways. If you've been paying attention, you'd see that Black History Month has probably been one of the most eventful ones in recent years. Eh...let me stop lying, Black folks took some major L's this Black History Month. Keep this kind of ish up and we might lose it altogether. Here's a look back of some of the more memorable moments that I'm sure Carter G. Woodson would be be proud of.





The "Brotha Coach" Lost The Super Bowl





I asked one of my friends if Jim Caldwell "counted" as a Black coach. I mean, obviously, yes he is Black. But it didn't really seem the same rooting for him as with other Black coaches. He pretty much succeeded Tony Dungy and inherited what he layed down. It ain't like he had to go through a long process to get hired or anything. Plus, I don't know about ya'll but it seemed like Peyton Manning was coaching the team the whole season, and the one time Caldwell made a choice...the Colts lost and ruined their chances of having an undefeated season. But on the flipside of that you can look at it as something that should've been happened, old retread White coaches have been getting preferential treatment for years.



Wale Passes On The Chocolate





Nigerian rapper Wale caused a fuss early this month when he released a video for his single "Pretty Girls" which featured light-skinned women almost exclusively. Of course this sent darker skinned Black women into a rage...and I feel them. Who said fair-skinned females could have a monopoly on shaking their ass for the camera? (I keed I keed). But yeah, the internet uproar over this video showed that the brown paper bag rule is still a polarizing element in the Black community. The Sistas e-picketing over this video was met with a new Wale video featuring all dark-skinned girls by the end of the day. Guess this means when a group of people speak strongly enough against something, change happens. But...something tells me (well actually, knowing how long it takes to shoot and edit a music video tell me) that this was all planned.



John Mayer Also Passes On The Chocolate





Right after the sting from Wale's video was starting to go away...John Mayer came along and punched Black women in the gut for good measure. In an interview with Playboy Magazine, the smart-mouth guitar player who laughs at his own jokes had a lot to say about his sex life:

"My dick is sort of like a white supremacist. I’ve got a Benetton heart and a fuckin’ David Duke cock. I’m going to start dating separately from my dick."

Apparently Mayer was every Black woman's White boy crush and a few of them felt offended. Really...I think a little bit of everybody felt offended by dude's remarks. I could care less what he does with his penis. If John Mayer doesn't like Black women "More For Me" (c) Devin the Dude.



If anything I was moreso "offended" (for lack of a better word) by his "hood pass/nigger pass" remarks. Attention naive white people out there...just because Jay-Z likes you or just because you listen to Jay-Z doesn't give you a hood pass. Hell, Jay-Z doesn't even speak for most Black people out there. If you want a "hood pass" come to the hood with some jobs, they'll love you for that.



Gorilla Zoe's 28 Mixtapes In 28 Days Campaign





Zoe is my guy so he knows this ain't coming from a place of hate, hell I've told him to his face the songs of his I like and don't like. Hell, I've been chastised by friends and professional peers for saying things like "Gorilla Zoe can rap" and "Gorilla Zoe could make some Scarface quality music if he wanted to." So yeah. But that said, I'm a fan of Zoe's and like seeing him win...but giiaaaaaat daaaaaayum! 28 mixtapes shawty? Not 28 songs...28 mixtapes shawty. That's alooooot of Zoe shawty. This idea teeters along the fine line between genius and insane. I've listened to some of it, and most of the stuff sounded like one long ass song because all the beats damn near sounded the same. Hopefully Zoe was just getting some stuff out of his system and plans on sitting down, focusing and making the great album that I personally think that he is capable of making. 28 mixtapes...got damn shawty.



Epic Beard Man: The Mini-Series





As a Black man in America...I'm sorry. You'll never get used to or look forward to seeing a White dude beat down a Black dude. The shit just reminds us too much of Jim Crow and Birmingham in the 1950's. I supposed this video can be considered to be an exception since dude got what was coming to him. Matter of fact, its not even the beatdown itself that bothered me. Its the racist comments and cartoons I saw on the internet. Racist White folks were rejoicing as if OJ finally got found guilty for killing Nicole. I mean, folks built wikipedia pages, tracked dude down for youtube interviews, the whole nine. Google "Epic Beard Man" and you'll get pages and pages of information, most of it smothered with racial slurs. Don't be surprised if the KKK replaces their hoods with grey beards from Party City.



OJ Da Juiceman XXL Freestyle





Hey, at least we know this was off the top of the head...we hope. The really need to put the arts back in our schools.



Zeta Tau Alpha Wins The Sprite Step Off





Forgive me if I come off as naive...but I was completely ignorant to the fact that White Greek organizations stepped. I thought that was only a Black college thing. I mean, the all White college frat parties I'd been to, the only stepping I saw was over drunk passed out people. But Zeta Tau Alpha from Arkansas came into Atlanta (yes, the "Black Mecca") and literally stomped out their competition. I'm not ashamed of White girls coming in and wrecking shop though. Especially since it looks like they truly outdid their competition and won it fair and square. But I am ashamed that the other teams not only let them come in and embarrass them...but acted like some hoes and found a scoring discrepancy that pretty much nullified their victory and made them share the crown with the AKAs. I mean, I can sit here and act like Black folks never got cheated in competition before...but damn, if this country is really supposed to be headed into this place of racial harmony, ALL OF US have to be fair.



2010 NBA Slam Dunk Contest





I'm still yawning from this.



Woman's Love Handles Save Her Life





Beanie Sigel once rapped about his gut keeping his gat in tuck, but he ain't got noting on this chick. A woman in Florida was shot at a nightclub, but her love handles stopped the bullet. Figuring that this was some sort of sign, she says she plans on getting even bigger just in case she gets shot again. Guess we should start calling them "life handles?"



Al vs. Tavis





I just spoke on this last week. Crazy thing is, I was actually going to write this post last week before this happened. But I figured I should wait until the entire month was over with because I just knew some more f*ckery was going to happen before March came.



But yeah...as you can see, Black folks took some L's this year during Black History Month. But shood, it looks like Jordan is finally about to own a basketball team, so I guess things are looking up. But for real, somebody needs to invent something pronto, we're looking bad right now.

Mike Bigga (aka Killer Mike) Sports Sunday Freestyles

Mike Bigga (aka Killer Mike)-Sports Sunday


Mike Bigga (aka Killer Mike)-"Iron Mike" (Gamecocks) [prod. by Smiff & Cash)

Since Mike hit us the Sunday Morning Massacres a couple years ago, it seems like rappers have gone even more overboard with the freestyles, with none of them having anykind of theme, or purpose for that matter.

Mike hit me up this morning out of the blue and asked me to meet him at the studio. He played me these two tracks that are the beginnings of his new freestyle series, Sports Sunday. You should be able to catch plenty of sports metaphors throughout. Know that the first track should be considered the pre-game warm-up...while the second track should be considered the 22-0 run right before halftime.

He insists that these two tracks were simply glimpse of whats to come...and a segue into the second batch of Sunday Morning Massacres. Enjoy.

Shouts out to Grind Time, the Educated Villians and Mike's engineer JD.

Killer Mike aka Mike Bigga feat. Ludacris and The Game-"Still My Nigga"

Killer Mike feat. Ludacris and The Game-"Still My Nigga"

Welp...looks like somebody is anxious.

Mike let me hear this song sometime last year. But it only had him and Luda on it...he also had plans on getting another, well-known singer on the hook. So to see this joint leak out unfinished, is kinda bittersweet. Hell, Mike himself didn't even know this joint leaked out. I mean, am I the only one who thinks this SOUNDS unfinished. But yeah, for all of ya'll saying that the song would be better off without Game on it...you're onto something, because he wasn't supposed to be on it either yet or at all.

Rev. Al Sharpton and Tavis Smiley "Disagree" On the Air

W.E.B. DuBois vs Booker T. Washington...2Pac vs Biggie...and now Sharpton vs Smiley



I heard about this yesterday. Evidently two of our "Black leaders" had a disagreement on Rev. Al's radio show. We all know that Tavis Smiley has been one of Barack Obama's staunchest opponents over the last three years. Mainly because he feels that Obama doesn't have enough of a Black agenda, if he has one at all. Rev. Al on the other hand has supported Obama (for the most part, but certainly not all the way) and took offense to some comments Smiley made about him on the Tom Joyner show. It all revolves around a February 9th New York Times article where Sharpton is quoted in saying that President Obama is "smart not to ballyhoo “a black agenda.”"...funny thing is the way it was written in the article, I'm not even sure if he said that exactly.



Anyways, Tavis took to the air and said somethings about Sharpton. Shaprton heard them, called Tavis and invited him on his show. The above video has this conversation in its entirety. Doesn't sound like anything really gets solved. Just sounds like two dudes saying "ay brah...heard you been talking shit about me."



However, one thing I do feel Rev. Al on is that its not quite right for Tavis to host a symposium in Chicago, about Obama, when he obviously isn't objective. He should rather be one of the panelist, instead of the moderator. Listen and leave your thoughts if any.

Killer Mike x Dr. Cornel West at Sweet Tea Ethics

The homie Ed Garnes just put out this footage from his Sweet Tea Ethics panel last month. This is a clip of him Killer Mike, Dr. Cornel West and Clifton West talking about market forces and why don't hear artist like dead prez and Phonte on the radio. Of course Mike takes over the conversation and makes valid points as always. I swear, outside of my big brother Bill in Augusta and a few other folks...Mike is the only cat I know that can go from talking about W.E.B. DuBois' Talented Tenth to Rick Ross in one breath and make it all make sense...which is what he did in this clip.

PREVIOUSLY: Killer Mike and Dr. Cornel West Speak on the N-Word | www.MAURICEGARLAND.com Interview with Dr. Cornel West

www.MAURICEGARLAND.com Nominated For Chozen Award

This was a surprise. Someone or some people thought enough of me to nominate me and my site for the Chozen Award for Blogger of the Year.

If you're not overly familiar with the Chozen Awards they recognize "the unsung heroes who make the city of Atlanta so great" who also demonstrates excellence in their field, gives back to the community and resides or works in the Atlanta Metropolitan area.

Anybody that knows me knows that I don't do things for recognition (even though its nice to be recognized sometimes) or attention. But I really have to say that I'm honored to be nominated for an award like this. Seems appropriate and fitting. Its like an award for folks who don't necessarily need or want the spotlight.

They have 15 categories of nominations, so feel free to vote in those respective fields after you vote for me *wink*

VOTE: Maurice Garland/www.mauricegarland.com For Blogger of the Year

Buffie the Body presents Bootynomics

Former (or is she still?) video vixen Buffie the Body is delving into the fitness business. Her website www.BOOTYNOMICS.com has a plethora of workout videos that are sure to get you started on the fast track to a healthier, better body. Need convincing? Check out her demonstrations on how you too can be the center of attention everywhere you go.

Back Extensions to work the lower back and hamstrings


Clamshell


Hip Extension with Ankle Weights


I don't know about you, but I'm already sold. Buffie's Bootynomics trumps Tae Bo, Pilates, Kanye's Workout Plan or whatever else you've been doing. Make sure you buy a DVD...er, well. She don't have any of those on sale yet. So just forward these youtube clips around to whoever you think needs them. Just make sure they don't watch it with any music playing, may get mistaken for a video.