Cdot The Catalyst is a dope lyricist who I’ve been chatting with on Twitter and iChat since last year. She’s cool, uber smart, talented, and well, definitely under exposed. We’ve had so many great talks and I love her irreverence and snark so much that I wanted her to submit this piece explaining her identity as a “femcee.” (I was supposed to post this months ago as part of a project that I never really got off the ground but that’s another story). Check out C Dot The Catalyst as she breaks down her disdain for the “f word” (femcee) and why Nicki Minaj gives her hope…
Apparently the tweets is watchin’ and reading my mind because I noticed a trending topic that read #becauseofnickiminaj…now aside from reading the obvious comments about chipmunk voices, Barbie personas and butt pads, I had my own response. “because of Nicki Minaj…I might have a chance.” My name is Charity Clay and I’m a woman and an emcee. I have difficulties with the term femcee because it implies that the term emcee is normalized to be a guy and I don’t think mic skills have a gender. I consider myself to be a lyricist and only measure myself by who I consider to be the best, but I digress. I was talking about how the popularity of Nicki Minaj is a good thing for us women in hip-hop who consider ourselves to be emcees. Now one would assume that my claim to be a lyricist would indicate some desire to reject the Nicki Minajes of the world because of the belief that they are destroying the purity of hip-hop but I have a different perspective on the situation. Read the rest of this entry »
BET premiered My Mic Sounds Nice: The Truth About Women in Hip-Hop last night and it was good, really good. I was actually surprised at how good it was. The filmmakers did a superb job conveying the tremendous impact of those of the xx variety on the culture. I didn’t learn anything new but it was informative enough for people who may have needed that lesson.
However, there wasn’t much of a solution presented. They tried at the end but most of the people they interviewed had a very industry way of thinking ie, shallow and narrow-minded.
“For me to try to find another Lauryn Hill is like for me to try to find another Jay-Z. That’s not happening. It’s like you don’t find those things those things find us,” said Kevin Liles.
This is the last installment of my chat with Jessica Estevez of iHeartDilla.com. Here we talk about so-called tastemakers taking payola to promote artists, women in hip-hop and how Jessica got into J Dilla. Make sure you check her out at www.BlackWeblogAwards.com and vote for her for “Best Music Blog.” Tomorrow is the last day to cast your votes!
I attended a nice dinner with R&B singer/songwriter Tank along with a few other journos and bloggers a couple of weeks ago, at a Chinese Restaurant called Chin Chin. We dined on good Chinese, as in, there was no General Tso’s or chicken wings and pork fried rice on the menu lol, and we chatted with Tank as we listened to some of his music, old and new.
Tank is promoting is new album, Now or Never, which drops on September 21. We only heard snippets of the new stuff and our chatter was raucous so it was hard to pay attention but what I did manage to hear was good. The main point of this dinner was for Tank to get to know the media because although he has done some interviews here and there, people still don’t really know who he is.
It’s always refreshing when I come across a blogger who has a unique perspective and iHeartDilla.com is definitely a blog that fits the bill. It’s run by creator, Jessica Estevez who put together a team of writers who have a deep passion for talented artists who may have a hard time getting press elsewhere. The hip-hop based website site features fresh new music weekly and at just one year old is a contender for Best Music Blog in the Black Weblog Awards.
I caught up with Jessica Estevez to chat about her blog, her supplementary radio and the inspiration behind her brand and the link to where you can vote for her.
Everyone has encountered someone who gets off on drama and likes to hurt people. These types of manipulative beings do whatever it takes to create strife whether they’re in the center of it or it started between other folks because of their manipulation and sometimes lies. Either way, you can bet that they are always the root of the problem. I’ve been dealing with these types of people all my life. But it wasn’t until a few years ago that I got an official diagnosis of what these people are called and it made perfect sense. According to Julia Cameron author of a very inspirational book, The Artist’s Way, these types of people are called crazymakers.
A couple of days ago, I had an unexpected brush with a crazymaker who I stopped talking to because of that reason. This person had been trying to get my attention for months to no avail (sending fraudulent email threats–that I was smart enough to trace with all the handy software that exists today–telling lies about me behind my back–the works) and decided to do something really foul that they thought would work (ie, defame my character). It didn’t. Why? Because I’ve been hip to game and didn’t give them the irate response that they’re used to. That person had the nerve to apologize later and brush it off to, “You know I just talk sometimes.” I didn’t respond because that’s how they reel you in–disingenuous remorse. I won’t go into it anymore because crazymakers don’t need to be entertained. They like to hurt and then thrive off the resulting negativity (ie curse outs, fights, etc, like I said). However, this person inspired me post this because I want more people to recognize what crazymakers like to do so that they can combat it better. Sadly, crazymakers can even be your relatives in some cases. But without further adieu, the following excerpt was taken from ThinkBlackBelt.com (because she was cool enough to write it all out so well, and even relate her own stories):
