The news at the time was on blast about Busta Rhymes' bodyguard being murdered while protecting his jewels for his star-studded video and current hit song, Touch It. The 'stop-snitching stench' aroma, on a viral pass-around, had everyone who saw 'what, who, when, and why' acting suddenly like dumbass living mutes. Sht so bad that Busta flew 3000 miles to supposedly finish the video, via Jimmy Iodine's poisoned, deep pockets. This was typical of the madness surfing atop the platform of hip hop in 2006, enough to make one of the chief creators scream stop.

Uptown in Harlem at the 126th Street's Black Slave Theater, a massive town hall meeting was called by Afrika Bambaataa's ZULU NATION, about the climate of the radiation of a radio, TV, movie nation; and how to stop and fight the control-towers that be. The severe lack of balance coming via the frequencies of the air, was akin to toxins pouring into the 9th ward after the levee expl- ur um, break.

Anything but a building full of bitter old hip hop headz, folks were motivated to finally answer to the responsibility and accountability of being grown. Those that claim they can't see the poison are duped by the same reasons it's effective. Usually poison is hidden in something deemed good for you. Poison has to be clearly identified with danger signs, death, skulls, bones etc. to keep the not knowing, unreading, and naive (usually children) from ingesting it. Speakers like Ernie Pannicioli, Rosa Clemente, Shaka and others from the Zulus, Grandmixer DXT and yours truly spoke to the room, of the clearly converted, about really forcing the balance from rap/hip hop being the millennium COINTELPRO. Yes, the new counterintelligence program steering the masses toward the two booming industries of jail and death.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. But then again the continued bitch slapping of blackfolk using the hand of hip hop takes place as the masses, who are considered asses, are too blind, deaf, and dumbed down to see or hear it. Or too numb to feel it. Testing a sane one's sanity, I say. And when I know something I say something. But do a 360 degree turn of your head....

In Selma, Alabama it was the 41st anniversary of the civil rights march across the Edmund Pettis bridge while many of the acts involved had 'mafia', 'gangsta' and 'nigger' running rampant in their names, lyrics, and imagery; as well as it being blastcasted across the Alabama urban airwaves. Tables of CDs, DVDs and T-shirts of slain rapcats, seem to parallel the ones of Garvey, King, X, and Harriet. Bootleg CDs from the 60's-70's sang about love and happiness as the 90's-06 CDs and DVDs centralized on drug-pimp-thug lifestyle. Have we gone forward or back? I wondered as I stared at the Edmund Pettus bridge hearing "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp" in the background.

Two weeks prior I approached BET's topdog Stephen Hill during the Grammy rehearsal about the imbalance of their programming since Teen Summit and Tavis Smiley. All he answered was he didn't want another FRANK'S PLACE ...you know bad number ratings, only conscious folk watching it, (i.e. too smart = no paper). Wondered what women thought about pimpin not being easy in '06. Then again if the president of MTV, BET, and Radio One are all black women, then why are the images of black women at its lowest?? Yeah, don't let me tell yall, do some work and google Debra, Christina, and Cathy....Death Any Child? Then again the ultimate pimp flask got one from white America, on the heels of Halle getting the bitch - ho treatment and Denzel doing Superthug.

Saw Kimora Lee Simmons has a book out called Fabulosity, caught it on CNN as they search for more streetcred...cannot even take the news when they feed the drug of America - celebrity to them asses.

I did a career day lecture booth at my youngest one's school as the 7th-8th graders asked who really won Flavor Of Love? Repeatedly asked did I have any money or was I rich... Instead I pointed to my head and said with my college degree in 1984 I'd always be rich (as in enriched) and knowing it would pale in these 'white written for black consumption hustle and flow and get rich and die tryin times'. Russell and all the superstars on the radio-TV-movie stage increasingly find it easier to avoid the masses and broadcast to them asses. Get that money from those who barely have it, and stack and brag about them chips and chicks in the back.

Dig this - it's really hard out there to defend against the wave of ignorant acceptance. Forget about them town halls being called ineffective. If anything they need to be held weekly, even daily in fact. A reminder of waiting for something to acknowledge and reward you, beyond recognizing self is like smiling at a bag of purchased cotton you just picked on a field. I'm not a pessimist about hip hop, I love the platform and its value to the world, history, etc. The historical fact on the surface says Triple 6 Mafia from Memphis winning the first Rap Academy Award for an original song is thirty-five years after Sir Isaac Hayes won the first. Two different times in Memphis, mind you. Dwelled on the negative as usual, you might say. But I know when my head and heart feels bitch-slapped without having a chance to raise up, breathe, swallow a positive thought and get my back straightened after manning the burden. And so It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp... but damn in anybody's right mind and soul why shouldn't it be? Mrchuck@rapstation.com