Come to the Square

Come to the Square

So ya’ll want me to come to the square
(Come on down, come on down)

Ya’ll want me to come to the square
So ya’ll can call me a square
Cuz I use real rap
To uncover whats under my cap
Pidoodoo pap pap pom pop pam pense
And some of ya’ll still think I make no damn sense
For all of those that want me to dumb it down
Ya’ll need to get with the james and grab you a rum and brown
Ya’ll square mafuckas but I’m comin now
I left Howard, No longer giving the runaround
Because I’m not the first bard
Check the yard
Keith, Donald and Roberta Flack
Were proud before proud
Was the new black
But lemme get off the rack
Stop flowin from the teet
Because ya’ll want me to come the square
So I can talk about me

So Hear I, Hear I come to the square
(Come on down, come on down)

Come to the square
To tell ya’ll how my flair
Only ends up in an awkward inner glare
Or how I’m not that rare
When I cut down the outer layers
About how my life’s unfair but unfeared
But I’m still worried about affiars in Zaire
And all in perfect timing
I’m still worried about my hair and what I hear
Or how weird it is
That the thing I steer
Can get ladies to stare
Even if its only for a pair
So she can show off her Nair
Once I get under skin and give her the wood like Blair
Forget your Posse,
Lets Set it Off and fuck like two hares
Run around bare in the woods with only few cares
And we can wake up the next day with the roar of a bear
Realizing despite all our fears
We just came to the square

(But that’s what they want us to do, huh?)

They want me to come to the square
(Come on down, come on down)

They want me to come to the square
I say don’t go there
Because when poppa sees the proof
The truths too much to bare
A teacher turned reacher
For things I didn’t share or
When the cycle started
Those pedals I didn’t care for
Wanna see whats in my jock
Why I connected with Pac
Although I’m from the burbs
Where we learn to hold cock
While its wrapped in sock
And where I was exposed to rock
Which led me to the blues
Had jazz in my hues
But hip hops were the reason for my funky brews
So that leads them to square two
Forget being on one
Cuz they don’t control my view
Or even my selection
I’m too wrapped up in this love/hate journey
They call perfection

WWE: Worldwide Work & Excitement

Kal Penn, who is most popular for his roles in the Harold & Kumar franchise and on Fox’s House, M.D., is joining the Obama administration as an associate director in the Office of Public Liaison.   Here’s a CNN Political Ticker story about it. Before I give anymore details or anything like that…here is a clip of Penn’s work in Harold & Kumar.

I love this franchise.  A big reason for my comfort level with ganja intake these days.

Take that for what you will.

Also, Obama’s administration is starting to resemble the Carter administration with all of these high profile appointments.  What do you all think about that?  Here is some more information about the Obama administration. And the Carter administration.

I’m doing a study at GWU for which I’ll get $40 at the end.  That is exciting to me.  I need a job ASAP.  Dreams are only daytime occupiers when there are no funds to extend the dream into the night.

A friend of mine and fellow Washington Football fan, Jimbo, is traveling the world in 128 Days.  Fuckin’ awesome.  He’s blogging about his travels.  If you wanna keep up with him here you go. I may have to take that down because I didn’t ask his permission first.  But he’s got an interesting and often humorous commentary on traveling the world.

One love.  My struggles aren’t nearly finished.  But I love, lose and love again.  So eat that!

Ecaep!

Pakistan Under Martial Law

RE-POST: Not an original post.  Original post was in 11/07.

According to the New York Times, President Pervez Musharraf has declared a “state of emergency” in Pakistan and has the country under what political analysts are calling militaristic rule. The president declared the state after multiple ideological differences regarding his removal as president with the Pakistan’s Supreme Court.

He is trying to justified his declaration by saying that he is protecting the country from terrorist threats resulting from demonstrations between Pakistani factions urging to take power.

Benazir Bhutto, a leader of

Condoleeza Rice has condemned the president’s actions and urged him to return to a democratic state as soon as possible.

Obama Hires Mercernaries for Iraq and Israel

President Barack Obama has carried through on a campaign promise that he would use private contractors to assist in military operations in the Middle East.  State Department spokesperson Gordon Duguid confirmed that the State Department awarded a $41,556,969.72 contract to Triple Canopy, a private military contractor formerly based in Chicago and now based in Virginia.

Ok, that's not the real picture, I just felt like messing with it because it was a cool visual, click the pic to see more about the company.

And I can’t get $20,000 to finish my undergrad degree.  Maybe I should go learn Tae Kwon Do…or learn how to handle ET, like these guys.

1) Obama claimed during the campaign that the increased use of private military contractors would be neccesary for continued occupation in Iraq.  The Iraqi government refused to renew Blackwater’s contract in Iraq in 2007 after a slew of bad press for the military contractors.  At least our public military will come home.  Hold the ticker-tape, though.

2) Triple Canopy’s contract in Israel dates back to 2005.  That is all on that point.

3) They have worked in Haiti, a case file which is now listed as closed.

I wonder if this will become another Blackwater situation in the Middle East? Former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince stepped down from that post on March 3, 2009.  Here is a Washington Post article about the ordeal.

This is undoubtedly a switcheroo on the part of Obama administration and is still, either way you count it, a tax on the American public.

“I believe in a way the Obama Administration is trying to appear bipartisan by hiring triple canopy,” said Omari Evans, a sophomore political science major at Howard University and resident of Teaneck, NJ.  He went on to say that this move is a way to show the pubic that the administration will still take the mission to get out of Iraq seriously despite the public’s concerns about private military contractors.

Occupation in the Middle East is now emminent but will it turn the same way that the Blackwater scandal did in Iraq?

If you go on to read in another Alternet article, you’ll see that both companies have similiar histories of military blunders and hiring practice.  I knew I should have stuck with Tae Kwon Do, sheesh.

Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating a leak of the new X-Men Orgins: Wolverine Movie. Why doesn’t that surprise me?

Strolling Up on Stanley

Strolling up on Stanley, I didn\’t conceive that his pain would turn into my belief.  He asked me for money and was polite about it.   But I walked past him into straight into the 7-11 for either a snack or a black and mild.  The fresh line I cut didn\’t jive with the scruff that he had come to rebuff about my own life.  I came out with a black and mild.  He asked me for money going in and was polite about it.   So I politely thought against giving him anything, until I saw the impolite, Reaganesque manor in which other late night patrons slammed down the window on his offer for nothing but words.  And lessons.  And pain.

I came out with my black and decided the least I could do at the time was pull a few times with him and build and see where his life was headed.  I mean hell, my horse wasn\’t too high despite the engine under the hood of my car.  I was out with the moon too.  He could have been up to better things than I was.  Plus, my baptized in the brimstone family\’s rhetoric replayed in my head.  \”You never know if he could be Jesus,\” my pops said to me a while ago.  Now I know better than that.

So I gave this dude a shot.  His thorns freshly adorned his head and the blood still trickled out of his eyelids.  As I started talking to him, he revealed an eery self-truth.  \”I\’m a carpenter and have been on the streets since I was kicked out of my girlfriend\’s apartment six months ago,\” he said.

The other details are murky to my perception but I could tell the dude had been through some real pain recently.  Maybe he just needed some encouragement.  So I told him some of my life story.  What else was he doing with his time?

And what else was I doing with mine?

I try to be humble about my story.  Because I know in worlds (not that far) away that kids would kill to have an easier life than mine.  But I\’ve come through a lot, so I know it might serve as inspiration for people who THINK they\’ve brushed the hot pot with out oven mits on (thanks to one of my exes for the analogy, even though it sounds like it came from your grandma and you meant it out of rage, that\’s why I put my own spin on it).

But back to the story.  Stanley kept steaming on my black and continuously running up to patrons when they left and came back to ask them for change.  For anyone that has interrupted my intense story telling for anything more lax knows how pissed I was.  If you don\’t, imagine being smacked in the face by a clown and told to shut up about it because everyone else is laughing (or crying).

I told him about the grit that got me through the trials set before me at Howard.

$$$

The obstacles built before me by Howard administrators unable to grasp anyway to nurture and do business but a non-nurturing, shortsighted way of doing business.

$$$

The refusal of my soul to buckle to a cause that wasn\’t mine at ESPN.

$$$

Eventually, no one came around for a while and it was just me and Stanley.  And smoke and mirrors.  As we got to know each other, I felt compelled by my own struggle to maintain sanity because obviously my soul wasn\’t broken badly enough that I couldn\’t ask someone for genuine help to fix it.  His was.  He didn\’t have any family, was on the bottom of a two month waiting list to stay in a homeless shelter and was probably really begging for money to go buy some type of drug.  I speculate that because when I pulled out a ten and two ones, he selfishly begged for the ten.  \”I could really use that ten dollars that you have right there,\” he said. \”My associate Ron will let me stay at his place for two nights for ten dollars.\”

\”I can\’t,\” I said.  \”I need this for my own nourishment.\”

So I selfishly gave the two ones to the fellow, told him god bless and to never give up.  Cuz I\’ve been through a lot, too.  And I\’m not giving up.

Hip-Hoperriffic Weekend

People were wondering what is actually going on in the DMV that is so hip-hoperrific this weekend.  Check it out.

Engage Weekend

9:00 pm – 1:30 am

Cake & Kisses @ Asylum
The Five One, RAtheMC, Lyriciss
2471 18th Street, NW (Adams Morgan)
Washington, DC
21+ | Free

8:00 pm – 11:00 pm

Mindpower Freestyle Cypher @ Chief Ike’s
1725 Columbia Rd NW (Adams Morgan)
Washington, DC
21+ | Free

Hip Hop Cinema Cafe presents BOMB-IT @ Historical Society of DC
801 K Street, NW (Mount Vernon Square)
Washington, DC
All Ages | Free

Saturday, April 4th (Evening | Facebook RSVP #1 | | Facebook RSVP #2)
7:00 pm – Midnight

Rap Leagues @ Nyumburu Cultural Center
Freestyle battle: $200 prize money
Rosetta Stoned, The Five One, G-Five Clive
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland
All Ages
$10 at the door ($5 RSVP)
$10 battle registration (Register @ 1vsM or email tyronenorris-at-gmail.com)

Also, but not part of Engage weekend.

Blu & Exile @ Bohemian Caverns

$15 Tickets/Doors Open @ 9pm/18+

AND

Tabi Booney and others on Capitol Hill for D.C. Statehood Rally

Wednesday, April 1, 2009 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

I think the Blu show has legendary potential.  But I’ll probably be at the Statehood Rally.  WHO’S COMING WITH ME MAN?

Spoken Up

Spoken word is dope.

I saw this on Def Poetry when it aired originally and was hoping that Kanye would drop.  I told all my friends about Kanye.  People who are tired of Kanye West can kiss my ass.  ACTUALLY.  People who get tired of any artist and kiss my ass.  Even though pop culture and they flood us with opportunities to enjoy Beyonce, Kanye, Lil’ Wayne and Souljahboy, that doesn’t mean YOU can’t choose to turn the TV off or change the station when they come on.

I actually used to get annoyed when artists/actors would flood a market.  But then I just started looking for something else.  Speaking of which….

Ya’ll should check out the new Reasonable Doubt Mixtape released by Inner Loop Records.  It has some of the hottest emcees in the DMV on it.  The production is sick.

Here is the link.

D.L. Hughley Show Getting Cancelled?!

Why is D.L. Hughley’s show getting cancelled?  His show was a little jarring for my traditional journalism sensitbilities at first but it grew on me by the time he had Michael Steele on.  I thought this was a good show and it may have been on its way to Arsenio Hall status if CNN let it get there.  But damn.  They snatched that shit quickly.  If I didn’t have reservations about what causes I take up, I would start a Facebook group to advocate keeping the mans show on.  Here are some clips and a prayer in the air for someone to take up the cause of keeping D.L.’s show on the air.

D.L. Interviewing Michael Steele and Chuck D

D.L. Interviewing Ron Paul

Responses, Regrets and Rules

I like the aesthetic value of the pic, but the i don't know about the color choice in terms of overall message. Shouts to the photog. You know who you are (aka I'm not sure how you feel about having your name brought up in a blog).

Yo.  Sorry to everyone that got there night ruined by my blacking on Friday night.  I didn’t really black (everyone who knows how much I used to drink) but I did go off on a few certain individuals and put a damper on an otherwise good night.  I’ve spoken to those people already and hope to grow past that drama. :-D

In other s.e.n.t., that shit threw off my whole weekend.  Thank you to my ex for talking things out with me.  Her blog is here.  If I wasn’t so thrown, I would have gone Murky Coffee in Arlington to see a show put on by this senior at Wakefield High School, Jeremiah (something, sorry buddy I don’t know your last name) and that these two dudes I’m jamming with (Robbie and Evan) played at.  I heard they went in pretty hard.  I regret missing it.

NEW RULE: I promised myself only to regret the following things from now on: missing out on shit that I wanna do. I know that means I have to prioritize more efficiently.  Who is with me?!?!

NEW RULE: If it pertains to me and you were wondering, ask me.  Like if you heard (supposed, conjured up, fabricated, etc.) that I was the young journalist that got the NY Times Institute to tighten their restrictions on trainees, ask me before you go spreading lies.  I’m not saying you’ll believe me, but at least you’ll hear it from me.

How many people think there are too many rules in hip-hop?  What are your theories on why so many rules exist?  What is your favorite rule?

I’m going to start sharing some of my rules with ya’ll.  Sometimes.

Thanks for reading this whole post if you did, please comment answering the questions or if you have a questioned based off the new rule.  Here is a little suttin from the musical group that helped get me through the weekned.

Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuttin’ to Fuck Wit

Ok, it wasn’t the aforementioned song, but Gravel Pit is a funny video.  If you wanna hear ‘ain’t nuttin’ to fuck wit’ go to you top right corner of your screen and Google that ish.

Ecaep!

P.S.  I wanna spend time with you…and you.

Hi, Again…Bye, Again

Another Daydreamer original. James Shields' other work and various sources of inspiration can be seen if you click the pic.

Familiarity gives to friendship

At the boats bow

Not knowing with me is (0)k

Truthfully ties eventually slip loose

Acuity ripples with the tide

Searching for knowledge and truth

Yanks at my flippers, I hope I’m a buoyant guy,

[that's the spell I'm trapped in]

F-A-N-T-A-S-Y