Miniya's blog

I just brought my daughter her own personal CD player a few weeks ago. Almost every day without fail she asks me for CD's to go with the player. What do you tell your child when they are asking for DMX or Jay-Z? The lyrics that are on the radio are supposedly the clean versions. The actual lyrics are in most cases are appalling to me. At this point in time my daughter is tired of the same Lil' Bow Wow CD. I continue on my quest for suitable music. My frustration builds because I would have never imagined that buying music would be such a tedious task.

Sexuality is a natural part of our individuality I do realize this. Our music, i.e. Blues, R&B, Jazz, and Rock and Roll, have all contained some form of sexual overtones within their lyrics at one time or another. Music is generally written to reflect situations or feelings that are prevalent in our lives. Hip-Hop is not an exception to this rule. The problem with this today is that we have excessively placed too much importance on it. Hip-Hop has been the primary music of the African-American youth for the past 20 years at least. Although we cannot expect the artists to write and perform productive or progressive lyrics for our youth to listen to, we can speak out on the sell-out, narcissistic behavior they are representing.  Read More »

I was chatting on line with a friend one evening, and I popped my question. I know he is use to them by now. He and I almost never see eye to eye, but we always come to a mutual understanding. My question this time was “what do you feel about Jill Scott’s music”? I was anxious to hear his response, because this brotha is conscious. I knew he would tell me what I wanted to hear, but he did not. I asked do you see her music as conscious. His response was that he liked her music because of the instruments versus the synthetic sounds that are commonly used today, but she is not a conscious artist.
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Whenever I read a book that inspires me to underline whole passages and then jot down notes in the margins, I recommend that book to others. Joan Morgan's, When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: my life as a hip-hop feminist is such a book.

Although it's not without it's problems, Chickenheads is challenging and thought provoking. The heart of the book is toward the middle when Morgan explores several relationship dynamics, the most important being the relationship that Black women have with themselves.  Read More »

 Afrikans in America have a sickness, better yet, let's call this an epidemic. An epidemic is an outbreak disease that spreads more quickly and extensively among a group of people than would normally be expected. This outbreak is not a sudden one. No, this virus gives a deeper perspective on the millennium bug. This epidemic has been here for centuries whose strength has increased 10-fold since it's inception in 1444AD. This virus has guaranteed the entire Afrikan Diaspora. It's crippling side-effects causes us to let go of everything we create. In this society, we account for less than 1% of products produced and owned, yet on the contrary, are the biggest supporters of others goods and services accounting for a 99% consumer rate. Face it, everything we create, we literally give away, ok, for you politically correct cats, "we share." But sharing means something is reciprocated, so how have we benefited from our offerings to the world of entertainment?  Read More »