Entering 2003 I’m vowing to make a positive impact on hip hop by accenting on the great things and leaving the wack behind. I think the last t-dome had people reading hate on my breath, well everything is not supposed to be loved because it’s never that simple. There are so many great efforts made across the world in the name of hip hop and those efforts need to be raised. Once again I saw cats covering their eyes and ears when I brought up the race issue regarding the one sided representation in hip hop. If they can’t see that 98% of the faces that spit the rhymes on videos are black ones, then why not talk about the imbalance? It ain’t 50-50 visually, and most of these artists roll their stories outta the hood, so shouldn’t we adults be concerned about this?

Hip hop’s a beautiful thing and deep down many artists want the love, the guarantee they’ll still do their thing, and a good financial advisement and security. With the JMJ death I vowed to be the rap superman in the uniting of this genre, the old with the new, with a budget of zero. I think a lot of yall have peeped me across east, west, north and south doing high profile things but the work to reverse this is vast, re-shining the image and network connecting the genre generational gaps of this culture. Enough of myself, although I will leave myself open to launch a vent section when I witness or hear some ultra-ridiculous shit.

Everybody’s always looking for the revolution in art and sound. If they really understood they’d know that it’s coming from all over the place, all over the world in fact. In rap and hip hop I think that future artists will be more reachable but from a higher level. On TV, but at the same time just as able to help the community they are supposed to be representing.

At last week’s BILLBOARD AWARDS in LAS VEGAS, the RUN-DMC dedication was wonderful, and I thought that today’s superstars like NELLY and JARULE stepped up big. I had NELLY to the left ear and JARULE to the right during rehearsal, and privately they expressed wanting to do the right thing as well as keeping their thing going. Then TREACH, VINNIE, LATIFAH and BUSTA RHYMES walked over and I suggested that they all cipher and discuss their issues (because they all had them to one degree or another). They all did a marvelous performance and I was happy to see ASHANTI win so many awards, it was pleasing. It was also pleasing to see IRV GOTTI smiling and having a great time because he’s a good cat. What I’m saying is that the fronting, and even the brand name is played out and the artistry and music is what’s gonna make their fans fans forever. I told all that the companies are there to be used, and for them to enjoy the opportunity to make money at what they like to do. I also told them that at the end of the day, or even the middle, the ultimate gift to reach for is that NELLY can walk through the streets of HOLLIS and JARULE can roam thru the streets of ST LOUIS and feel like family respectively. There’s enough money for everyone and organization is simply like washing your hands before sitting at the table instead of racing there and grabbing food with your hands. Everybody and then some must eat as well.

DMC and ERIC BLAM (RUN DMC road manager & Hollis crew executive member ) are special cats… always humble and DMC’S book KING OF ROCK on ST MARTINS PRESS is about as honest a reading on someone’s soul as you will ever get. I was with them much of the past week as KID ROCK, GRANDMASTER FLASH and yours truly did a six minute dedication to JMJ and RUN DMC. It was beautifully put together by ROCK and orchestrated by the GRANDMASTER. In rehearsal KID ROCK was incredible as he did RUN and MELLE MEL (STEP OFF) renditions word for word. That as well as doing some classic rock joints like LYNARD SKYNARD, ALLMAN BROS and CCR… to the T. I got some great photos but I think I may have exposed the film, damn I hope not. I knew KID ROCK was talented when I recorded some material at his then WARREN, MICHIGAN studio for DETROIT rap legend CHAMPTOWN. I missed it when it aired because my hotel room in CHICAGO didn’t have VH1 but the access has been followed up by Mr DEAN ENGMANN from www.shutemdown.com the official archive area of PE, and the SLAMjamz newsletter sent by the trusted one and only JOSHSAM.

Speaking of GRANDMASTER. He and longtime Furious 5 associate, EZ MIKE, visited the ICEHOUSE STUDIOS and recorded yours truly for a record he’ll be releasing in 2003. JOHNNY JUICE engineered and of course with KYLE JASON we had some great conversations harking back to the past, present, and future of the thing FLASH carried like a baby. The book to get is YES, YES YALL by JIM FRICKE and WILD STYLE filmmaker CHARLIE AHEARN. It’s an oral history of hip hop’s first decade. A great book that the GRANDMASTER himself says is the closest thing to the truth. It was great recording with him…

Oh yeah, the reason I was in CHICAGO is that PE (again minus FLAV who revisits the earth on JAN 2nd) was doing a rare one dayer for radio station Q101 fm. It was called the TWISTED IX show at the ALLSTATE ARENA which used to be called the ROSEMONT HORIZON when we played there last on New Years Eve 1991. They did some changes on the outside of the building that I called a ‘barn’ 11 years ago. The other groups on the show were DISTURBED, 3 DOORS DOWN, BOX CAR RACER, THE VINES, SUGARCULT, and JIMMY EAT WORLD. MOBY was supposed to be on it but he was beat down in BOSTON two days back. I don’t understand ..why beat MOBY down? They said it was some EMINEM disciples as if he’s the white TUPAC or something. Again I think that there’s assholes out there who don’t get that ‘e’ ain’t that kinda cat, regardless of his one on MOBY beef. I chastised the crowd after they cheered the fact he wasn’t gonna be there, and don’t relish in the fact of picking on helpless individuals. I bet these same kids would never pick a fight with SEPULTURA… doubt it…. During the 25 minute set I couldn’t tell you what I was doing. I guess the crowd dug it. I got a letter from somebody on how he didn’t dig us diggin at the prezident… zzzzzz

The last Terrordome was reprinted all over the place, yes it was a vent but I was just laying it out there. Thus e-mails and comments have followed from all over the place. The comments that make me laugh is that I’m consistent but nobody listens to me anymore… I don’t know what this means because if I say something totally twisted and say something off the wall it’ll be on the news in a minute. I wouldn’t want an adult to follow what I say, I appreciate the fact I can say something to add to the fabric of society. Yup, there will be peeps that will check these t-domes out like peeps still going to SPIKE LEE’S movies, MIKE JORDAN’S games, MIKE TYSON’S fights and MIKE JAX concerts. Everything has its place and I’m glad these things are read by many, I just gotta keep writing... again for 2003 I promise twice a month with 2 terrorboxes.

Taking y’all back a bit... the 7TH Octave PE band performed at the CREATIVE COALITION’s yearly FIRST AMENDMENT BASH, along with a performance by ELVIS COSTELLO. The tripped out thing is that we were performing directly in front of HARRY BELAFONTE and DANNY GLOVER who immediately came backstage and greeted the group after a scorched SON OF A BUSH rendition… VICENNES UNIVERSITY was a great gathering during the early part of November . It was at their hip hop conference about 50 miles north of EVANSVILLE INDIANA. The bugged out thing was that Evansville is central time but I drove north dipping back into EST. Then I was told that west over the bridge brought you back into central time again being that it was the ILLINOIS state line. Confucius say confusing… as I knew that I was losing an hour getting to the gig…

JOHN BROWN 2000 in OZ.. get well bro…he’s been laid up getting chemo for the c-thing we all wish him well, and god willing there will be a great tour thing goin on in AUSTRAILIA this year care of PE and hopefully some SLAMjamz acts….

MITCH ROSENBERG, videographer from MASS, was doin his thing on tour, will be hopefully one of the visual image makers of SLAMjamz…we had MITCH dancing on stage up in AMHERST which was mad fun indeed…

What was TONI BRAXTON thinking about… suing JAY Z for the first rights to sample a TUPAC record? Pleeeeze now I’ve heard it all..

I had to refuse a comedy skit on my man DAVE CHAPPELL’s new show on COMEDY CENTRAL. The skit was funny but I thought that it satired the black-struggle a bit too much for me. I just didn’t think I was right for the part, still DAVE’s one of my faves, HALF BAKED is one of my favorite movies and I ain’t never smoked, so I’ll be diggin the show from the other side of the tube, and he was cool with that. We’re still down to perform on his show next year. If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything…

On the other scale DRUMLINE was simply a great movie to take your kids to as well as digging the unheralded black college scene. DALLAS AUSTIN covered some key ground here. It was absolutely such a feel good movie where you can talk about it with your family afterwards. Why is black art like this so rare now? Because it requires great effort as well as integrity to produce something like this. With these chumpanies.. I mean companies... they need to know that sometimes we should be measured by our quality as opposed to just quantity…

JACOB THE JEWELER... I still don’t understand why cats don’t go inside 47th Street to get some jewelry. Shee, at least go price comparison shopping.

Somebody once said to me that there are too many people that say they will ‘die for what they believe in’ when they should be saying that they will ‘live for what you believe in’....

The NEPTUNES band N.E.R.D. played at the BILLBOARD AWARD Post party and cats like JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE and BUSTA RHYMES got down with them on stage. I don’t think that the band really takes the performance aspect as seriously as they should. True everybody cannot be the ROOTS, who have set the standard, but the art of performing takes great effort and talent at the same time. I think when the band tightens up as well as the producers they’ll find their niche.

Speaking of niches, the OKAY PLAYER empire has built incredible momentum with THE ROOTS... releasing PHRENOLOGY where I think the group raises the bar, as well as BLACK THOUGHT seriously coming into his own. Thought @ work is one of my faves and I dig the fact that the ROOTS make peeps step up to their art instead of dumbing it down. You can only do that for so long, but the ROOTS raise the bar with just the title alone. We are bound to see lazy minded cats not even make the effort to pronounce it right. Whatever happened to growing into an album? My peers had to do it with everything from WHAT’S GOIN ON to SGT PEPPER… everything is not supposed to be felt on first impact, in art at least. As a child I didn’t have the taste for PICASSO nor cranberry juice, but eventually I did. We don’t want art to continue to dig to the depths of dog food, shee, do we get to a day where we start spreading ALPO on bread just because they sell 2 million cans of it a week? Clap your hands, not paws, to what the ROOTS are doin….

On a semi connected note the absolute best, most superb show I’ve seen in a bit, especially this year, was COMMON setting off his tour in his CHICAGO hometown at the HOUSE OF BLUES this past DEC 14th. Two shows, each of them clocking over an hour and a half. His band ‘A Black Girl Named Becky’ torched the stage with a parallel excellence to COMMONS prose. This tour was also promoting his new album ‘ELECTRIC CIRCUS’ which is another radical sonic step into the artform. I can’t understand how this cat doesn’t get the top 10 props he deserves but maybe it really should take 5 albums to solidify superstar status. Because I really don’t see how you can get much better than him….

Oh yeah, the FINE ARTS MILITIA ‘We Are Gathered Here’ album will be the kick off of eight possible SLAMjamz offline releases throughout 2003. This will be followed by a re-release of PUBLIC ENEMY’s ‘There’s A Poison Goin On’ complete with re-packaging, the return of the liner notes courtesy of SLAMjamz art genius MIKE "Mgee" GREGOIRE.

I never thought that there would be so many rappers bragging about getting manicures and pedicures. I’m saying that I’ve read this from at least three rap cats in interviews… ok?… why? Also wearing designer clothes or nice clothes on a ghetto body and attitude is tired…

Sad news from LONDON... the term Nigger is used like water in everyday speech by many blacks. Whereas the word used to be taboo, my man NAHEEM says that cats who wouldn’t dare utter it 10 years back now admit that all of a sudden it suddenly feels a natural as str8 hair and color contacts… hmmmm

KOOL DJ RED ALERT’S 30th birthday party was a treat at HAMMERSTEIN BALLROOM in NYC. I happened to be shooting a photo session for FINE ARTS MILITIA in the same building when RED dropped by. Always a great man. The night was full of get down cats. GRANDMASTER CAZ did his thing on the wheels, GURU from GANG STARR, DRES from BLACK SHEEP and a stellar performance by NICE and SMOOTH who tore the house down. How come a record by them can’t get played? Truly legendary fun cats...

Now that UNCLE BOB JOHNSON has been approved to be the first majority black owner of an NBA team (CHARLOTTE in 2004) how will DAVID STERN handle a ‘super-ghetto’ pool promotional party during halftime of a game? Half jokingly speaking, after the condition that BET has cultivated in us black folk right about now, one has to wonder if that was a forward move. Selling the only window of reflecting and influential black media allowed in this land, then waiting two years to get accepted to own a basketball team, then maybe the revolution IS basketball after all. You critics better apologize to KRS ONE he called it way back on these fools.

I’m outta here, expect the new thing in 03..... Good holidays yall.. Mistachuck@rapstation.com