Monday, December 27, 2010

VIROLOGY- Chapter 2 Break Bread

http://soundcloud.com/mikevirus/chapter-two-break-bread

Get the link and download OR stay here and give it a listen. Mixology will never die. Shout out to VIRUSSS.

Chapter Two: Break Bread by mikeVIRUS

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

New from XITANOS MATEMATIKOS PALINDROME 11:11


Check out the new EP from Gypzy Village's XITANOS MATEMATIKOS.  Take a listen and get a glimpse of a world that few know exist. Dirty beats, not like toxic waste, but like thick dust on a piano that has been neglected by abandonment.  Sonically you have to take on layers of sound; each of the layers containing its own universe.  The depth of the lyrics go way beyond what the casual Hip Hop listener is used to.  Take a bite and taste the flavor of your favorite dish that you've not tried yet.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

An open letter from an artist
to a Mexican crime cartel boss
 
By Guillermo Gómez-Peña
 
Señor XXX

Lord of the heavens and the beaches, the highways and the trailers

1. I have never met you face to face and I truly hope I never do.
Despite the fact you don’t know me, your actions affect my daily existence in profound ways. I am one of the hundreds of thousands of post-national Mexicans whose umbilical cord to my homeland has been severed by you. It hurts me to confess it but I don’t look forward to my increasingly less frequent visits to Mexico, because people like you have made it a terrifying place, a war zone. I have lost my country of origin to violence and fear; to the violence you helped create and the fear you continue to perpetrate.

2. I haven’t had the opportunity to cry for Mexico. I haven’t had the time to cry for the 30,000 ‘documented cases’ of people killed by organized crime in the past 3 years; Mexicans killed by other Mexicans like you, not to mention the thousands more who have simply vanished in the Arizona desert, lost in the bi-national sex trade or buried in some mass grave.

It all happened so fast… the delusional war declared by president Felipe Calderon against your kind; your internal ‘cartel wars’ fighting for the control of strategic territories, and the ‘collateral’ civilian casualties. Then there were the wholesale kidnappings and ‘
levantones’, your exemplary assassinations including the now world-known beheadings and mutilations followed by the bombings and assaults to police stations, penitentiaries, restaurants and nightclubs and the abominable massacres that resemble those by the Colombian and Central American Death Squads of the past.

It is happening so fast, relentlessly…In less than a decade, Mexico became one of the most violent countries on earth, with monthly murder statistics sometimes higher than those of the Iraq and the Afghan wars. Violence is now our master narrative, daily headline and cultural landscape.

3. -Unfortunately I speak from first-hand experience: My family and friends have been directly touched by your violence. One of my closest cousins was stabbed 22 times by a sicario (hired assassin) who spent less than 2 months in jail for his crime. My 88 year-old mother has been robbed twice at gunpoint. Other relatives and friends of mine have been kidnapped, beaten and robbed by cops on your payroll, pseudo-cops and teen gangsters. And many people I knew were killed in crossfire, simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, meaning anywhere, anytime. And this didn’t happen in Bagdad, Ramallah, Kabul or Kinshasa. It took place in Mexico City, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Chihuahua City, Tijuana, Juarez, Veracruz, Morelia, and many other cities I learned to love while travelling in my ex-country as a young man. Today, these places are all part of the international travel alert websites that contribute to the destruction of Mexico’s tourism.

4. - Due to emotional saturation, I haven’t been able to fully grasp much less digest what exactly went wrong? And who is to blame for this madness? President Calderon for forcing us all into a war we were not prepared to win? The likes of you who carry out the violence or the politicians, military men and policemen who protect you? The US drug consumers and distributors who create the demand, the gringo mercenaries who sell you the high tech weapons or the global media that sensationalizes your cruelty and perpetrates your fear campaign? Everyone seems to play a major role in this 3D movie that has real consequences.

I do understand the problem of inequality and poverty; the immense, ever growing distance between poor and rich and why, when faced with a future of joblessness and despair, people are left with two equally dramatic options: to migrate north to a country that hates them or to join you and work for you, to aspire to be like you. When you have no job, access to education and decent housing for your loved ones, it seems much easier to join organized crime than to remain unemployed or sub-employed, working against all odds for almost nothing. On the day of his apprehension, a young hit man told a journalist: “Hey culeros! What’s the pinche difference between dying from starvation or dying from a bullet in your heart?”.
This is not hard to understand: It’s globalization-gone-wrong; the story of a dysfunctional nation/state on the verge of losing control against the backdrop of a trans-national pop culture that has swept our historical memory and humanity, tearing down even more the already ruptured social fabric and turning the youth into consumers of extreme desires and seekers of instant success.

All this has made it easier for people like you to exist.

5. And then, there is the fear generated by your exhibitionist cruelty. In the map of organized crime that now comprises more than half of Mexico’s territory, the civilian population wakes up everyday to fear; fear of being kidnapped or having a relative kidnapped; fear of going out and becoming a victim of random violence; fear of being robbed, beaten up, shot at, mutilated, raped. The gruesome images that document and (indirectly) perpetrate this fear appear daily in the front pages of the newspapers and comprise half of the national newscasts. Some of your legendary “revenge” YouTube videos became more popular than those showcasing beheadings by Al Caeda. Your sadism is carefully staged but who are you performing for?

6. Your empire of violence does not stop at the border. The young gang members who work for you in Mexico are connected to other gangs on this side of the border. These gangs are comprised of post-national teen Mexicans and Salvadorans, norteños, sureños and Mara salvatruchos, who also kill each other while fighting for the drugs you help to smuggle and the prestige you fight to secure . I know many Mexican parents in the US who have lost their sons and daughters to the very same violence you have helped to instigate collaborating with crime cartels from other countries. I have attended several funerals. And when those who survive the eternal gang warfare in our US Latino barrios get deported they simply rejoin your ranks back home. In this vicious circle, they will lose everything: their relatives and friends, their identity and eventually, their lives. All that remains are some hip hop songs and indie documentaries chronicling their short lives.

7. You should know that the main news that is reported here in the US about Mexico concerns crime cartel violence. Understandably when the Anglo Americans who have no emotional relationship to Mexico watch these news on TV, they get scared of Mexicans and Mexico. And their fear inevitably fuels the current anti-Mexican hysteria and eventually translates into irrational anti-immigration laws (such as Arizona’s’ infamous SB-1070 and HB-2281 laws) making it harder for all of us here in the US to be treated as equals. In the eyes of a racist, a migrant worker, a drug smuggler and a potential terrorist become indistinguishable.

Since you probably have several relatives and friends in the US, I’m sure you think about these matters. But then, I wonder- what purpose does it serve you to know that you are contributing tremendously to the worsening of conditions for the US Latino communities at large and to the empowerment a new xenophobic US far-right?
Supongo que esto te vale madres.

8. Today, as I rewrite this letter, I’ve got more questions for you: Do you ever feel sorry and secretly cry? Do you have a hard time falling asleep? Do you sometimes look at yourself in the mirror and feel embarrassed or angry with yourself? Aren’t you afraid for the lives of your loved ones? Do you really think that Malverde, Judas Tadeo and the Holy Death are protecting you well? Are you willing to pay the huge price of putting your relatives and friends at risk for a relatively short life of unrestricted power, sex and glamour? Do the movies, soap operas and corridos that you inspire make the daily risks worthwhile? Don’t you ever wonder that creating a truce with other cartels might actually be beneficial to you and to the whole country? Am I naïve for asking these questions?

9. For the moment all I have is my art and my words to talk back and speak up. Half of the artistic projects and writings I am currently involved in have one central subject matter: the culture of violence on both sides of the border. It occupies a big part of my art and I wish it didn’t. I wish I could go back to making art and writing about other matters with humor and joy. Unfortunately, for the moment, my sadness and my outrage won’t allow it. I truly wish I could go back to Mexico one day and live in my old neighborhood in peace.

10. I am not alone.

Gómez-Peña
Orphan of two nation/states
California,
The Other Mexico, 2010

Some contextual information for the foreign reader:
 
(This year, Mexico celebrates both the 200th anniversary of its Independence and the 100th anniversary of its Revolution. The entire year has been proclaimed by President Felipe Calderón as “Year of the Nation.”
 
September 15, 1810 was the day when father Miguel Hidalgo called to take up arms against the Spanish colonial government. And the beginning of the Mexican Revolution, the first in the century, was on November 20, 1910, the day when guerilla fighters Francisco Villa and Emiliano Zapata began their first insurrectionist attack against dictator Porfirio Diaz.
 
President Calderón has called upon Mexico to use both anniversaries “to reflect on where the country has been, where it is right now and to think about what kind of Mexico our descendents will inherit in the future.” It’s like a one-year-long feel-good national psychoanalysis and, the president continues, “no one should speak negatively about Mexico outside of Mexico”. Because of this, not one post-national Mexican intellectual or artist living in the US was invited to partake in the celebrations. This letter is an unsolicited contribution.
 
In the Zocalo of Mexico City, a large digital clock has been counting down to both, the 15 of September and the 20 of November of this year. Similar countdown clocks were located in all the capital cities of the 31 Mexican states. Paradoxically, every day we count down in 2010, an average of 30 Mexicans are murdered by organized crime)

*I wish to thank Elaine Peña, Gretchen Coombs, Anastasia Herold and Emma Tramposch for helping me to edit the original manuscript.

--
::: L A  P O C H A  N O S T R A :::

Emma Tramposch
Project Coordinator
657 Mission St, #200
San Francisco, CA 94105
W:
pochanostra.com
E:
pocha@pochanostra.com
P: 925/878-9345

KEEP UP WITH POCHA ON THE ROAD:
https://sites.google.com/site/pochaevents/

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Monday, November 8, 2010

New from XITANOS MATEMATIKOS

Tzoltze Ek'uis CH 1: Earthquake

Check the new album out. The player is embedded into the page so that you can bump. Right above the WEST COAST art pic. It is the new permanent home for music from the crew that refuses to sleep...EVER

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Rings for the NBA Champs


We are going to be hard to beat this year. LET'S GET 'EM!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Sedgwick and Cedar New York, New York


"It's my duty as a B-Boy to stay fresh to the ultimate" -Golden Griffin

WE BEAMIN'


I love posse cuts!  This is brand new from a gang of young emcees.  All City Chess Club

Monday, October 11, 2010

Papa Wendo- MARIE LOUISE


Max volume, please!

MC Lyte- CHA CHA CHA


My sister put me on to her back in 1989, she had the red SHARP boombox...

Monday, September 27, 2010

Sunday, September 26, 2010

75 BARS

DEAR GOD 2.0


The Roots, Black Thought is one of the greatest emcees to ever spit rhymes...

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

The Narcicyst featuring Shadia Mansour


It makes my day to find things like this...music from the heart

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Monday, August 23, 2010

Wax Preservation


Multi Touch Light Table: GERGWERK from GERG WERK on Vimeo.
This is how Hip Hop should advance, through us, for us, by us...

Friday, August 20, 2010

Crap Artists by Despot


"I get paid to breathe, hooray for me"

Drums is stupid live on this beat, so what if I am late, at least I showed up...

Aisee Taisee



X33 x Sikh Knowledge x Manmeet Singh

Xitanos Matematikos
Deep roots drink well water

Monday, August 9, 2010

Sunday, June 27, 2010

BRASIL v CHILE


If you don't know, now you know!

Friday, June 18, 2010

NBA CHAMPIONS: LOS ANGELES LAKERS


Back 2 Back champions! This has to be the sweetest of 'em all! My team wins AGAIN!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Park Ji-Sung HERO OF THE DAY!



My favorite goal of the tournament so far!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

KIL RIPKIN-Not You


"Not You" Directed by Science Projects and Produced by Eric G
Many of you are on your journey of self-discovery.  Lots of folks out there lack knowledge of self.  Kil Ripkin is acting as a guide on your journey of discovery.  KNOW THYSELF.  Watch this video and know that you are who you are, not who they say you are.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Westside Love

When it comes to the gear, I like to be on that next, next.  WESTSIDE LOVE will be dropping soon.  If you don't get yours now, you'll get it later.  This brand is about to blow, TRUST! Click the link below and purchase this first run of tshirts at a special price.  Truth And Rights brings you some of that good.
 http://www.westsidelove.us/store/

Friday, May 14, 2010

Black Death

BP, Haliburton, Transocean, this is in your responsibility to clean this up or ask for help to clean this up. UNACCEPTABLE!
(Photo from Boston Globe, AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Introducing Jo'Bulani

The official ball for the Grand Final of the 2010 World Cup in Johannesburg,South Africa.  Are you ready?

Monday, April 5, 2010

Miss Saigon Authentic Vietnamese Food

Miss Saigon Plate
3345 Grand Avenue Oakland, CA 94610-2772 - (510) 835-3474
Open Mon-Tue,Thu-Sun 11am-12am

Miss Saigon is a Vietnamese restaurant with great food at a great price. If you are in Oakland and want to get some good food go to this place. It gets the seal of approval.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

The World's Gone Mad

http://mandeepsethi.bandcamp.com/album/the-worlds-gone-mad

Check out the new EP by Mandeep Sethi.  Featuring tracks produced by Povan Beats, Sikh Knowledge, Gnotes, Deacon LF. Also featuring X9, Sahku, Cobe Obeah.  Click the above link and download this album right now!  Think I'm frontin'? Then read the blog title: Truth And Rights, you know how we do.

 

Sunday, March 21, 2010

TULAN San Francisco

Imperial Roll
8 6th Street San Francisco, CA 94103-1602 - (415) 626-0927
Open Mon-Sat 11am-9:30pm

A classic San Francisco gem. For me it comes down to two things when going to a restaurant, good food and good prices. Tulan has both. I recommend the imperial roll seen above, delicious! Vietnamese food that is served hot and fast. The knock on this place is that it is in the Ghetto. 6th and Market is not San Francisco's finest block, but here is my advice: Don't start nothing, won't be nothing.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

THE DRAW

Who will be in Madrid May 22, 2010?

Friday, February 19, 2010

AVIATOR SHADES- Xitanos Matematikos

TRUTH AND RIGHTS PROUDLY PRESENTS

www.xitmath.com

X33 and X9 Produced by Povan

The Xitanos Matematikos have produced an instant classic! Truth and Rights is happy to present you material from the heavyweights of underground. Big up to Povan on a incredible beat.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

MIND FREE

"They just afraid another Malcolm X will lead us/With a plate full of knowledge/And you know he gon feed us"

Get ready for that truth serum. Don't matter if you don't like it, because it is THE TRUTH!

Kil Ripkin



Truth And Rights Presents...Aftermath Pt. 1

Don't you just love hearing Hip Hop you never knew existed? You get it here. You get the real. Listen to him spit y'all...they used to call this "underground" in the 1990's, at Truth And Rights we call it Roots Hip Hop!

Sunday, January 31, 2010

EXCLUSIVE! Onitsuka Tiger





Only 144 pairs produced exclusively for Shoe Biz San Francisco

Guy Hi





Lakai Guy Mariano Pro Model, new shoes NEVER gets old!

Pancho Villa






16th Street between Valencia and Mission. Try the Pura Carne with carne asada and guacamole.