Love Supreme: A Universe Made In Heaven on Earth, manifested by Mindbender Futurama

"Rap is outta control." - EPMD

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Don Imus is back. Of course he is. He's a white man in America. Nuff said. *Sigh.*
Reminds me of that joke from the 70's: Reporter asks Black man: "How you doing today, sir?" Black man: "White people still in control." (Or something like that... you get the point though, right? Riiiight.) I am the furthest thing from a racist. I just call 'em like I see 'em. And now, Don:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Don Imus is an aging white man whose critics have assailed him for a racially charged on-air remark that got him fired. On his return to the airwaves, he brought with him some young black cast members.

It remained to be seen whether his newly diversified lineup and his pledge to foster a dialogue on race relations would quiet his critics and soften any future blows dealt in a show that Imus himself said is built in part on making fun of others.

"I can only wait and see if his deeds will follow up his words," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, one of the strongest voices calling for Imus' firing after the shock jock called the Rutgers University women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos."

"The fact that he now has a black sidekick and that he's on delay, clearly may speak of some of the measures that his new employers have put in to make sure that there's not a repeat offense," Sharpton said.

Phil Boyce, WABC program director and a Citadel Broadcasting vice president, said he could not say whether race played a role in hiring black comedians Karith Foster and Tony Powell because Imus himself chose the new additions. Citadel owns WABC and four of the 21 other stations broadcasting the show, which premiered Monday, eight months after Imus was fired from CBS Radio and the MSNBC cable network.

Also returning was Bernard McGuirk, the producer who instigated the Rutgers comment and was fired as well.

Calling herself Imus' "new sidekick," Foster said after the broadcast that she hoped those who were most angered by his comments could feel represented by her on the air.

"They want change, and what better way to incite change than from the inside?" she said.

Foster said her work on the show would be based on her experiences growing up in Plano, Texas, which she describes on her Web site as an "affluent suburb north of Dallas with the ethnic diversity of a Klan rally."

"I think I can speak from the viewpoint of an African-American, and especially one who can see and understand both sides," she said. "I grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood but obviously my family is black. I have black friends, and I live in Harlem. I see and can understand where everybody's coming from, which I think makes for a great mediator."

Powell, whose stand-up credits include "Showtime at the Apollo," said his hiring was not a token gesture.

Imus "actually wanted to improve the quality of his show, and so he went out and he got talented individuals to help him improve the quality of the show," Powell said. "The proof is in the pudding and the proof is in the product."

But Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, remained skeptical.

"Why comedians?" she asked of the new hires. "That's the only thing women and blacks can do is be funny? I don't find that encouraging."

But, she added, "We have to wait and see what their contributions in fact are."

Boyce countered that Foster was more than a stand-up comic. Before appearing on NBC's "Last Comic Standing" and other shows, she was a production team member on ABC's "The View," he noted.

Besides, he said: "We're doing a radio show. Our job here is to be interesting and entertaining."

Michael Harrison, publisher of industry trade journal Talkers magazine, said the presence of a black man and a woman on Imus' show could help soften the impact of any future comments he makes. For example, he said, sidekick Robin Quivers had helped shock jock Howard Stern with perceptions among women.

Foster, who said she was appalled by Imus' Rutgers comment, said she wouldn't give the host any undeserved soft landings.

"I'm not going to be a sycophant," she said. "If and when I need to, I will speak up. That's who I am. That's how I was raised."

In an apologetic 15-minute monologue before a live audience, Imus on Monday promised to use his second chance to discuss race relations. People paid $100 a ticket to see the show, with the proceeds going to Imus' charity.

"I will never say anything in my lifetime that will make any of these young women at Rutgers regret or feel foolish that they accepted my apology and forgave me," he said.

Even after all the uproar, it appeared Imus could still draw high-profile guests. Monday's lineup included noted presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and presidential hopefuls Chris Dodd and John McCain.

In the end, Harrison predicted, the spotlight on Imus will simply fade away, while the host continues "to be the equal opportunity offender which people know he is."

"The people who are interested in this issue will lose interest in Imus because they have bigger fish to fry," he said.

~~~

Ab Rude = hero of mine.

Abstract Rude Interview: Scorpion Metamorphosis

Abstract Rude has been a mainstay of the LA independent rap scene for a long time. Some even say that he and his comrades from Project Blowed, Tribe Unique, and Massmen invented the indy rap scene in the mid-nineties. More than a decade later he continues to grind, innovate and morph into new phases of self. 2008 finds Ab with a new record, and a new look….

PB.com:When did you start your locks?

Ab: I started my locks back in August of '91.

PB.com: Is there a reason that you started them then?

Ab: Basically. I was inspired by the Native Tongue movement in hip-hop, how all those cats in the video had them, and the Rastas around the way. Mainly Tribe Unique, who are my big homies, Zulu and Ebony Prince, initially it was us trying to separate ourselves from the typical image of the younger cats who were around us. There seemed to BE the Muslim brother who had the suits with the bow ties, and shaved heads who were selling bean pies and The Final Call news papers. That was one from of black consciousness, then you had the Rastas with the dreadlocks and the red, gold and green tams selling incense in the foil, puffing the sensi herb, that we called the hootie bang, back then (laughs)

Then of course you had Def Jef and the Soul Brothers, who influenced me...

PB.com: Wasn't your hair also part of the way that your name came about?

Ab: Yeah, Zulu and Ebony had started Tribe Unique, back in 89 or 90, then they came at me, I was kinda like the young shorty around the way. I had a crazy dance style so when I joined Tribe Unique, they gave me the name Abstract. Then there was this shop called Know Thyself, up on King and Normandie, kinda like a reggae shop that sold tapes, and incense and cool books and soaps and oils. The cats in there were the first ones who told us how to cactus our hair by extracting the juice form the cactus leaves, and how that aided in the early process of locking and getting your hair trained to accept the lock. Strengthening it and naturally conditioning it. When we first cactused, the brothers in the shop saw my hair and said "His are gonna be rude!". Later on that night, Zulu and Ebony were trying to get me into this club (I wasn't of age yet). They told the bouncer,"Yeah, this our manager right here, Abstract." The dude was like "yeah, ain't that Q-tip's name?".(Laughs)Cause he had started calling himself the Abstract Poetic at that point. But I was officially calling myself that before I knew about that and I didn't have any intentions of changing my name. I remember Ebony was like, you should add something else, just to make it distinct so people won't get y'all confused. Since the Rastas said my locks were gone be rude, we were like Abstract Rude and it just clicked!

PB.com: So you started in '91 and grew them for 16 years…

Ab: Yeah, almost sixteen. It would have been sixteen in August. I heard it said that if you are gonna cut em you should do it in seven year cycles. I guess I went a year and half or so longer than that (laughs). You know when you have locks for that long, your hair's gonna get a certain weight at the ends, and the thinner your roots are, the more timely it is to re-grow and shed that set. No different than a tree that sprouts out, fruit comes and the limbs grow longer. It goes through a maturation process. Those limbs break off and the tree grows new ones. I already feel like I'm re-growing them. The stronger you keep your roots, the stronger your locks are gonna be.

PB.com: How hard was it to shed them now?

Ab: It wasn't really something I thought about. People would ask me about it all the time and I wouldn't have an answer for them. I would tell them that nothing lasts forever. I doubted that I would have the same set of locks on my head forever, it would have been nice to grow grey with them, but it was sort of like a maintenance issue. I still have a healthy head of hair so I wanted to treat my scalp really well and revitalize and if I like the way that its going I can easily grow 'em back out. You can see right now, I didn't shave my head completely. I'm just taking advantage of the chance to rejuvenate the energy that I'm getting from shedding the old ones and enjoying the lightness and I'm excited for the next phase.

PB.com: Are you also entering a new phase for your career?

Ab: The change really had nothing to do with my career. It was strictly an assessment by myself and a sister named Ke-Ke aka The Oracle Jayne Doe that I like to call my locktician. She and her mom own a shop called Totally New Waves and Braids up in the Valley. She first treated our locks for the Renaissance video back in 98 or 99. Ever since then I've always gone to her to treat my locks. I actually just had her come over to twist my hair. We assessed and it turned out that the smartest thing to do was to regenerate. It really had nothing to do with the music, but just naturally, you know, how things go in the universe, its coinciding with this new album that I have coming out.

PB.com: Tell us about the new record.

Ab: You know its been interesting. Though I've had a few cool campaigns before, this'll probably be the most thorough as far as trying to get the most out of this whole independent scene. The cats at Rhymesayers seem committed to trying to do as well they could do with this project.

PB.com: Are you working with any of their producers?

Ab: Not for this particular record, well sort of because I'm working with Vitamin D for this record ( but no Ant, etc.). I knew about [Vita] through this crew he used to be down with called Source of Labor from Seattle back in the day. They used to come out to all the Project Blowed events back in the day. Then I found out that he co-produced Gift of Gab's solo record with Jake One. I was happy and honored to get a chance to work with him. He gave me like sixty beats to listen to, and I quickly saw that there was a whole world we could explore. Really it’s been two years in the making. Mainly that’s because of location and the way that we're doing things. We're both busy dudes trying to stay at it.

PB.com: When did you first start rapping?

Ab: I was making pause tapes and trying to rap on em back in 90 or 91. I was really heard in LA for the first time on wax in '93. When we put out the Project Blowed tape. If you had a tape with art work and bar code back then you were official (laughs). We made it to tape and cd around '94 which coincided with us opening up the workshop which is thirteen years in the making.

PB.com: That brings us to this question: A lot of cats were rapping back then and a lot of cats have come and gone since. How is that you think you were able to maintain a state a relevance after all these years?

Ab: Well you don't necessarily have to make a thousand songs. Some people make the same impact off of ten. Not to say that me making a thousand makes me more noble, other than the fact that it gives me a lot of practice (laughs). There's a lot of different routes and paths to get to the same goal that we all have which is to get your music heard, get your message out there and making a living doing it. When you come form that underground school, there's an emphasis on not compromising what you're about. Somehow me and other cats like Acey, 2Mex, Busdriver, Awol, Medusa, we've somehow done all those things and stayed active enough to stay relevant and spread out wide enough to keep it fresh and stay out there. Its also about understanding what its really about, which is connecting with fans and staying true to the brand that you put out there even as you evolve. It’s also about putting stuff out there all the time. You got the solo records, the ATU stuff; the mix cd's that I've put out, the Haiku D'Etat stuff the A-Team stuff, Codename Scorpion and all that. It’s about diversifying. Just following a natural path. A lot of that stuff was just freestyled and we just stumbled into it. And luckily we've been fortuitous.

Look out for the Dear Abbey LP, and the re-release of South Central Thynk Tank with a companion DVD featuring all of ATU's videos in 2008. [Editor's Note: Ab was serving one of his homies viciously in NBA 2k7 while participating in this interview…]

www.abstractrude.net

www.myspace.com/abstractrude

Open Mike Eagle

http://kiresys.typepad.com/sundays_best/2007/12/abstract-rude-i.html

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Chamillionaire, Wendy "I Looka Likea Man With Big Beautiful Fake Breasts" Williams, and Hip Hop, on Larry King: