Instagram user Terrance Sims (@simsstrong) posted a music video telling everyone to go and check out his students’ first music video. These young ladies are rapping about education and positivity in their debut track titled, “Excellence First”- and they got bars for days! If you thought First Day Out was hot, then you’re gonna love this fire! Check it out below!
Syllabus Magazine, the Carolina’s source for Music, Culture and Fashion
BET hosted another long-awaited Hip-Hop Award show last night. While Cardi B won “Best New Artist”, Kendrick took home the “Album of the Year” award, and of course DJ Khalid won “Best Collaboration” with his hit Wild Thoughts, featuring Rihanna; let’s just skip the remaining details for now and get right to the BET cyphers – since those seem to be the highlight each year.
While Rapsody, Tokyo Jetz, Kash Doll, and Leikeli47’s delivered a mean cypher representing the ladies, the cyphers were filled with political punchlines and phrases letting the world know that hip-hop is paying close attention to the political climate in this country. CyHi, Fat Joe and Belly’s presentation was only the beginning of punches thrown at our President. There was one cypher fans had been anticipating all night that kept music lovers on the edge of their seats – the return of Eminem. Marshall Mathers, one of the most unpredictable MC’s in hip-hop graced the BET cypher last night and by the time he spit his last bar – Twitter was in shambles. Eminem came out with guns blazing and delivered a hip-hop kamikaze to Donald Trump; and we LIVED for every bar!
Racism’s the only thing he’s Fantastic Four
Cause that’s how he get’s his fuckin rocks off , cause he’s orange
Yeah , sick tan. That’s why he wants us to disband,
cause he can not withstand
the fact we’re not afraid of Trump.
Fuck walking on egg shells, I came to Stomp
That’s why he keeps screaming drain the swamp
cause he’s in quicksand
It’s like we take a step forward then backwards
but this is his form of distraction
plus he gets an enormous reaction
When he attacks the NFL so we focus on that and
Instead of talking Puerto Rico or Gun reform for Nevada
All these horrible tragedies and these *sic* would rather
Twitter storm with the Packers….
That first part was just a warm-up. Eminem continued spitting nothing but hardcore facts:
Same shit that he tormented Hillary for
and he slandered , then does it more
From his endorsement of Bannon
support for the Klansmen
Tiki torches in hand
From the soldier that’s black
and comes home from Iraq
and still gets told to go back
to Africa. Fork and a daggar
and his racist 94 year old grandpa
keeps ignoring our past, historical, deplorable factors
He continued on with his war of words to discuss how Trump looks at black athletes as if they’re spoiled brats, trying to use their platforms and stature to speak out against the unarmed killing of black men and women. Em also recognized Trump’s hypocrisy mentioning McCain being a POW and how Trump stated, “doesn’t like his war-heroes captured. – THAT’S NOT DISRESPECTING THE MILITARY!“
Slim Shady’s ended his four and a half minute lyrical marathon by sending shots to any of his fans who may be supporters of Donald Trump:
Any any fan of mine,
who’s a supporter of his
I’m drawing in the sand a line
You’re either For or Against
And if you can’t decide
who you like more in your split
on who you should stand beside
I’ll do it for you with this…
Fuck You
Eminem’s closing words on his 2017 cypher was that “we love our military, we love our country – but we HATE TRUMP”!
See Eminem’s Cypher in its entirety here:
Syllabus Magazine, the Carolina’s source for Music, Culture and Fashion
As Bun B spoke with Rickey Smiley during his morning show interview, regarding the need for people of color to help our own communities during disasters, he emphasized how important is was for people to take the bull by the horns and work together take on the needs or our own communities – especially during disasters. Bun B, stated “these are the communities that are forgotten about any other time, so what makes you think they are going to be remembered during a disaster.”
As we look back at catastrophic events like Katrina, or the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, from poor neighborhoods to poor countries, many of these places still have not been rebuilt. Though organizations have raised billions to rebuild, many poor communities are left untouched and remain in dire conditions.
However, there is hope. We are starting to see a shift, especially with celebs who are speaking out about where they intend to donate their dollars. Rapper TI blatantly responded to Kevin Hart’s Hurricane Harvey Challenge, that he was willing to donate $25,000 but he would not be giving it to the American Red Cross. Tyler Perry also was eager to give, but was hesitant regarding where he should send his funds. In a Facebook post Perry stated, “I’ve given millions of dollars to charities in the past that never got to the people it was meant for. I know lots of people want to give and help but be careful. You really need to know how much of your donations actually get to the people before you choose an organization to give to.”
Even in a society where we often view people as self-centered, we all still have a beautiful human instinct that forges us together during a time of need. However, our natural hesitance towards giving to large, sometimes greedy, non-profit businesses is not without merit.
In 2010, the American Red Cross raised over a half-billion dollars for relief to Haiti, and by 2016 when the country dealt with another natural disaster, Hurricane Mathew, Haiti still had not recovered from the Earth quake of 2010.
In 2016, The Washington Post published an article titled, “Haitians are desperate for help. But they don’t want it from the American Red Cross”, in this article they discussed how NPR and ProPublica launched an investigation that discovered, despite collecting nearly a half-billion dollars in donations, the Red Cross managed to construct only SIX permanent homes. Six!
Many locals believe that large organizations, especially American organizations, do not care about people, especially people located in some of the more remote parts of Haiti.
Woy Magazine, a popular Haitian publication urged outsiders to send aid to local organization, and bypass foreign relief agencies like the Red Cross. Cleve Mesidor, a Haitian American and former Director of Public Affairs at the U.S. Commerce Department stated,
“I do not recommend contributing to non-Haitian entities. This includes those U.S. organizations who claim to be ‘locally managed’, which is code for powerless figurehead. Most of these entities are based in big cities like Port au Price , which are not located near the affected neighborhoods. These non-Haitian organizations will likely use your funding to resource their non-Haitian teams for the long trip to the affected communities (SUV, gas, etc) and set up camp. They will likely need to find accommodations for themselves (place to stay, maid to cook their food, etc) while ‘tent-cities’ pop up for locals.
Andy Loaroche, another Haitian-American says if you really want to fuel the Haitian economy, you should visit. They have an amazing culture, beautiful resorts, and amazing food and delicacies.
The tragedies of Haiti, even our own tragedies right here in America after Katrina, are causing people to become more aware of where these funds are going. The goal is to avoid putting money into the pockets of millionaires disguised as aid organizations. Instead, people are on a mission to get the money directly to the people in need; and get it to them as fast as possible.
Last week, the Hand in Hand telethon raised $44 million dollars for victims of Hurricane Harvey. Through small, local donations and large corporate giving, the proceeds will benefit organizations that already have boots on the ground in Texas and surrounding areas. These organizations include: Rebuild Texas Fund, ASPCA, Best Friends, Direct Relief, Feeding Florida, Feeding Texas, Habitat for Humanity, Save the Children, and United Way. Hand in Hand organizers are also evaluating the need for funds within the communities affected by the Hurricane.
The amazing Hand in Hand event all started with Houston rapper, Bun B sitting in his comfortable home wishing there was more he could do, as he watched his neighbors within surrounding communities suffer at the plight of the floods. He did what anyone in his position would do (or wish they could do), he called up one of the biggest stars in the world. With almost 100 million Instagram followers and 100 million followers on Twitter, he reached out to Justin Bieber. Bun B knew that he needed to get a celeb on board; but not just any celeb. He needed one that could get the word out about getting help for the city, faster than anyone, while simultaneously capturing a broad audience. Well, the Bible says, “you have not because you ask not”, and guess what – a simple ask turned into a major television event. Bieber’s manager, Scooter Braun was all in. Bun B stated, “God bless Scooter for wanting to be involved – putting in his own time and getting others to contribute their services and resources for free.”
Finishing his radio interview with Rickey Smiley, Bun B said he never expected that his idea and his genuine need to help, would bring out the biggest stars in the world. The Houston rapper continued to emphasize that perhaps people cannot bring out the biggest stars in the world, but what most of us can do is take control of what goes on within our own communities. Because poor people are often the most forgotten when it comes to devasting events like Hurricane Harvey, it is time to stop relying on the government and become the boots on the ground. Bun explains that he’s from Houston; he’s not an outsider sent from the government in town for a few weeks to check things out. He knows exactly what areas have the most flooding and what areas are really the most affected. He’s excited that they have the funds available and the knowledge to be able to go directly to these areas and provide assistance quickly – this is definitely a new blue print for disaster assistance.
Most of us cannot pick up a phone and call the biggest celeb in the world, but when disaster hits your community, many of us can call our colleagues to travel out to areas within our own communities to see how we can help. We are from these communities, so it is easier for us to assess where the greatest needs are, and if the government won’t protect us, its up to us to do the work.
It’s not too late to help Houston. You can still donate to the Hand in Hand organization Here.
Syllabus Magazine, the Carolina’s source for Music, Culture and Fashion
The 4th Annual Charleston Caribbean Jerk Festival is Saturday, July 15, 2017 at Riverfront Park in North Charleston from 4p to 11p.
The Charleston Caribbean Jerk Festival celebrates Caribbean food, culture, and music.
Caribbean food vendors from across the Southeast will compete for the title of Best Jerk Chef 2016!!7
Syllabus Magazine, the Carolina’s source for Music, Culture and Fashion
With June being the official month of Black Music Month, an aspiring music artist that goes by the name of Bahja Rodriguez from Atlanta, Georgia expresses her emotions through love songs. Bahja’s career began at the age of 12 as “Miss Beauty” in the group, the “OMG Girlz” along with the daughter of T.I. & Tiny. The group was successful with singles in 2013 and a few tours with other young artists. In March of 2015 the group disbanded. After the breakup of the group, Bahja decided to pursue a solo career of her own.
In April of 2015, Bahja released her first single entitled “Jealous Type” which gained over one million sound cloud streams. She went on to release two more songs entitled “Lipstick” and ” Next One” solidifying her position as a solo artist.
Bahja continued to pursue her solo career by releasing two EP tapes “It Gets Better” on November 20, 2015 and “Luv”on November 25, 2016 which both charted high on Billboard and ITunes R&B charts. Bahja is currently working on her debut album which is set to be released in this year. She has also currently signed to her first record deal with “Street Sxholar Records”.
Check out one of our favorites from Bahja, “Next One”! AND, even though the month of June is coming to a close, keep supporting artists beyond Black Music Month!
Prev
