Tolu Olorunda

-Bob Marley, War, Rastaman Vibration (1976) It’s unclear what was slipped into Mr. Holder’s drink last Wednesday, as he delivered his landmark address, but he spoke the unbridled truth, and will probably have to pay for doing so. Though faulty in some of its assumptions about Black people, the majority of his lecture strung notes…

So it seems that in the Age of Obama, the invincibility Ralph Ellison ascribed to Blackness might be losing its sting. Barack Obama is a hot commodity, and news channels, perpetually addicted to popularity, are scrambling to find avenues through which Black males can become the sources of unwarranted attention and unsatisfactory analysis. CNN wore…

Most would agree that FOX News, Rupert Murdoch’s crumbling empire, has not been exactly fair to Black people over the years. In fact, it has, whenever possible, vehemently attacked whoever it perceived to be an important factor in Black America. At any given opportunity, its multi-millionaire hosts have encouraged, entertained and enlisted the support of…

Ousted Illinois Governor, Rod Blagojevich, and heir-apparent to Gandhi, Mandela and Martin Luther King Who could have imagined that Arne Duncan—yep!, the one with the Bachelor’s in Sociology—Obama’s choice for Secretary of Education, would be welcomed by unanimous approval from Washington’s decision-makers? As King Duncan strolled down the Senate floor on January 13, no one…

President Barack Hussein Obama II was sworn in as the nation’s first African-American president on January 20th, 2009, but a stunning reality, in spite of this historic event, tames all notions of “how far we’ve come.” As the President and his Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, have stepped into the briefing room, they, along with the…

[Read Part 1, Part 2] In the coming years, a future of immense possibilities awaits the Hip-Hop generation. Hip-Hop culture and music has a responsibility to maintain its role as the “CNN of Black people.” With the current state of Hip-Hop, and a stigma of discouragement confronting listeners of all stripes, certain strategies must be…

[Read Part 1, Part 3] At this crossroad, Hip-Hop is confronted by a plethora of problems. Though many critics are quick to heap scorn and castigation upon the culture, such analysis often fails to keep track of the best of what it has to offer. Internal critique of Hip-Hop, within the artist community, is not…

-Princeton Professor, Cornel West, Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom (Pg. 127). 2008 was one of the most deadly and violent years in Hip-Hop history. There’s a reason for that. It was also the year when many Hip-Hop fans, around the world, mourned the loss of their favorite rappers, to casualties such as homicides,…

-Hip-Hop artist, Common, The 6th Sense. With the recent victory of President-Elect Obama, many have speculated a change of attitude in young black men, vis-à-vis the thirst for educational prowess. Whilst this prediction does seem, by all measures, accurately reflective of the lingering emotion within Black circles, some have suggested the need for a handbook…