Wale talks with Amaru on the competitive elements that exist with himself, Drake, Kid Cudi & Asher Roth. Wale further discusses with Amaru on who is “The Number One Female vocalist” in the game today. – AmaruDon

THIS WILL BE A GREAT MOVIE TRAILER FEATURING KANYE WEST POWER

Most modern Americans do not know the words to "Lift Every Voice and Sing," (see below) but in the segregated schools of the 1920's, black students would rise every morning and sing this "Negro National Anthem" written by James Weldon Johnson. Born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1871, Johnson grew up headstrong, willful, and courageous. Attending Atlanta University where he studied English literature and European music tradition, Johnson intended to use his education for the advancement of his race.

While a freshman in college, Johnson took a trip throughout the rural South, igniting his interest in the African American folk tradition. Later he would incorporate the rhythms and ideals of these traditions in his uniquely beautiful poetry. After graduating from the University, Johnson first became a high school principal; then in 1906, he accepted the position of U.S. Consul in Venezuela and later in Nicaragua. While overseas, Johnson had several poems published in the United States.

In 1912, James published anonymously his novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. This novel tells the story of a mulatto giving up his racial roots for the comfort of being a mediocre, middle-class white person. The book is very interesting reading, because it explores the themes of racial roots, racial values, and moral choices.

In 1920, Johnson became the national organizer for the NAACP and was the organization's first executive secretary. Later, in 1922, Johnson edited his Book of American Negro Poetry, a major contribution to African American Literature. The 1920s were a time of great change for the United States. The "Great Migration" brought thousands of blacks from the South to the industrialized North. The increase in educational and employment opportunities for African Americans after the War for Southern Independence, combined with the development of a black middle class, created an atmosphere conducive to a cultural renaissance. In New York City, Harlem became the political and cultural center of black America and thus the center of the "Harlem Renaissance"--a movement lasting a little more than a decade where the African American voice began to be heard and appreciated in the fields of music, theatre, and literature. James Weldon Johnson was the "elder statesman" of the Harlem Renaissance.

The 1926 publication of Nigger Heaven by Carl Van Vechten showed the glitzy, glamorous, and guttural sides of Harlem. While it offended some African Americans, the book also perpetuated the mystique of the Harlem Renaissance by creating what was known as "Negro vogue." The main problem facing the black artist during this time according to Langston Hughes (also a Harlem Renaissance poet) was "the pressure, often found in the black middle class, to strive for whiteness."

In 1927, Johnson published God's Trombones, a book of poetry which celebrated the rhythms which had first captivated him on his teenage tour of the rural South. Interestingly, Langston Hughes' book of poetry was called Tambourines to Glory. The musical allusions in both titles illustrate the essence of the African American heritage. In the words of Langston Hughes, the heritage is one of "rhythm and warmth incongruous humor that so often as in the Blues, becomes ironic laughter mixed with tears." Truly, James Weldon Johnson promoted and preserved that laughter mixed with tears.

In 1938, while a professor at Fisk University, James Weldon Johnson was killed in an automobile accident.

Kill Superman: Episode 1 from VisualHighLife on Vimeo.

Ashe served in the U.S. Army from 1966–68, reaching the rank of first lieutenant. On February 20, 1977, Ashe married Jeanne Moutoussamy, a photographer he had met four months earlier. Andrew Young, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, performed the ceremony at the U.N. chapel in New York. Arthur and Jeanne adopted one child together, a daughter, who was born on December 21, 1986. She was named Camera after her mother's profession. Camera was only six years old when her father died
In 1979, Ashe suffered a heart attack, an event that surprised the public in view of his high level of fitness as an athlete. His condition drew attention to the hereditary aspect of heart disease. Ashe underwent a quadruple bypass operation, performed by Dr. John Hutchinson on December 13, 1979.[6] A few months after the operation, Ashe was on the verge of making his return to professional tennis. However, during a family trip in Cairo, Egypt, he developed chest pain while running. Ashe stopped running and returned to see physician and close friend Douglas Stein, who had accompanied the family on the trip. Stein urged Ashe to return to New York City so he could be close to his cardiologist and surgeon.[6]
In 1983, Ashe underwent a second round of heart surgery to correct the bypass surgery he received back in 1979. In 1988, Ashe fell ill and discovered he had apparently contracted HIV during the blood transfusions he had received during his second heart surgery. He and his wife kept his illness private until April 8, 1992, when reports that the newspaper USA Today was about to publish a story about his health condition because of his increasingly gaunt physical appearance forced him to make a public announcement that he had the disease. In the last year of his life, Ashe did much to call attention to AIDS sufferers worldwide. Two months before his death, he founded the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health to help address issues of inadequate health care delivery and was named Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportsman of the Year. He also spent much of the last years of his life writing his memoir Days of Grace, finishing the manuscript less than a week before his death.
Ashe died from complications from AIDS on February 6, 1993. He had toxoplasmosis, an infection related to AIDS. Whether this contributed to his death is unknown.[7]

Wiz Khalifa chops it up with HardknockTV about the war in Iraq, his hip hop influences (BTNH, Snoop, Biggie, Jay-Z, Pac, Nelly), and his career goals.

17 YEAR OLD SPITTA CASEY VEGGIES FROM LOS ANGELES CA

Huey Newton was born in Monroe, Louisiana to Armelia and Walter Newton, a sharecropper and Baptist minister respectively. Huey was the youngest child in his family, and was named after Huey Long. Newton's family moved to California when he was three. Despite completing his secondary education at Oakland Technical High School, Newton did not know how to read. During his course of self-study, he struggled to read Plato's Republic, which he understood after persistently reading it through five times. It was this success, he told an interviewer, that was the spark that caused him to become a leader.[1]
As a teenager, he was arrested several times for minor offences, and by age 14 he had been arrested for gun possession and vandalism.[2]. Newton supported himself in college by burglarizing homes in the Oakland and Berkeley Hills areas and committing other petty crime. Newton once claimed he studied law to become a better burglar.
[edit]Founding of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense
While at Merritt College, Newton had become actively involved in politics in the Bay Area. He joined the Afro-American Association, became a prominent member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. Beta Tau chapter, and played a role in getting the first black history course adopted as part of the college's curriculum. He read the works of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X, Mao Zedong, and Che Guevara. It was during his time at Merritt College[3] that Newton, along with Bobby Seale, organized the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in October 1966. After a coin toss Seale assumed the role of Chairman, while Newton became Minister of Defense.[4]
The Black Panther Party was an African-American revolutionary left-wing organization working for the self-defense for black people. It was active in the United States from the mid-1960s into the 1970s. The Black Panther Party achieved national and international impact and renown through their deep involvement in the Black Power movement and in US politics of the 1960s and 70s, as the intense anti-racism of the time is today considered one of the most significant social, political and cultural currents in US history. The group's "provocative rhetoric, militant posture, and cultural and political flourishes permanently altered the contours of American Identity."[5]
[edit]Accusation of murder
Newton was accused of murdering Oakland police officer John Frey. Frey had stopped Newton before dawn on October 28, 1967, and attempted to disarm and discourage the Panther patrols. After fellow officer Herbert Heanes arrived for backup, shots were fired, and all three were wounded. Heanes testified that the shooting began after Newton was under arrest, and a surprise witness testified that Newton shot Frey with Frey's own gun as they wrestled.[6][7] No gun for Frey or Newton was found.[7] Newton himself claimed that Frey shot him first, which made him subsequently pass out for the rest of the incident; Newton also claimed that it appeared (from the courtroom testimony of the surviving officer) that the two police officers either shot each other, or there was a third shooter (most likely the former).[8] Frey was hit four times and died within the hour, while Heanes was left in a serious condition with three bullet wounds. With a bullet wound to the abdomen, Newton staggered into the city's Kaiser Hospital. He was admitted but was later shocked to find himself chained to his bed.[9] Newton also recalls in his book vague images of being operated on in the hospital while police were interrogating him.
Charged with murdering Frey, Newton was convicted in September 1968 of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 2–15 years in prison. In May 1970, the California Appellate Court reversed the conviction and ordered a new trial. After two subsequent mistrials, the State of California dropped the case.[9]
In January 1977, Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones visited Newton in Cuba.[10] After Jones fled to Jonestown, Guyana, Newton spoke to Temple members in Jonestown via phone patch supporting Jones during one of the Temple's earliest "White Nights."[11] Newton's cousin, Stanley Clayton, was one of the few residents of Jonestown to escape the 1978 tragedy, during which more than 900 Temple members were ordered by Jones to commit suicide.[11] Newton returned home in 1977 to face murder charges because, he said, the climate in the United States had changed, and he believed he could get a fair trial. Because the evidence was largely circumstantial and not solid beyond hearsay, Newton was acquitted of Kathleen Smith's murder after two trials were deadlocked.[citation needed]
[edit]Later life
Newton earned a bachelor's degree from University of California, Santa Cruz in 1974. He was enrolled as a graduate student in History of Consciousness at University of California, Santa Cruz in 1978, when he arranged to take a reading course from famed evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers, while in prison. He and Trivers became close friends. Trivers and Newton published an influential analysis of the role of flight crew self-deception in the crash of Air Florida Flight 90.[12] Later, Newton's widow, Frederika Newton, would discuss her husband's often-ignored academic leanings on C-SPAN's "American Perspectives" program on February 18, 2006, mentioning that Newton earned a Ph.D. from UC Santa Cruz in 1980[clarification needed]. His doctoral dissertation was entitled "War Against the Panthers: A Study of Repression in America."[13]

HEUY P NEWTON STORY BY EZEIKEL PHILLIPS