(Located at the bottom of the page is Joe Budden’s Black Cloud. Play it as you read for maximum effect.)

There was nothing but on overcast feeling of fear and uncertainty in the air. This was then validated as homes began to burst into flames as if the wood was conspiring with the hot hands of the Devil himself. There is too slim a chance that the smoke detectors gave the families early enough of a warning to make it out to the streets in time. This couldn’t be happening. No. Not here of all places.

I’m getting ahead of myself. Let us back track:

Last night/morning, I had a dream that my block and neighborhood was being terrorized by white supremacists. They were roving the neighborhood and destroying property at random. Throwing flaming fieces bombs through home windows and home invasions that led to God knows what once they were inside…

The attacks were clearly racially based and when I would tell my white friends what was happening, they would say “oh that’s so terrible” and try to empathize but there was an emotional disconnect in their eyes. (It should be mentioned that all of these “friends” in the dream were all people I’ve never met before. They don’t represent my real “white” friends just in case people are wondering.)

Back to the Nightmare:

So a few of us young men from the neighborhood decided we needed to strike back at our aggressors. We were frustrated at the inaction of the older men. They were supposed to address this problem at stop it! But when they did nothing, we decided to take matters into our own hands. (Unbeknownst to us, the elders were more aware of the politics involved in such a precarious situation as this)

So one night we snuck into their neighborhood and enacted some revenge on the other party. I don’t remember exactly what happened or what our attack consisted of but i do remember standing back and thinking “this is getting out of hand.” But how do you tell men to stop defending the honor of their murdered friends or family? I wasn’t sure how. But I also wasn’t sure if we had the right people. Were the ones we now had pinned to the ground just as innocent in this madness as those burned in their houses?

That night, a life was taken. Deliberately.  Others were beaten so bad that they might as well have been. And THIS s where we entered a dreaded point of no return because we knew they’d hit us back harder than they ever imagined of doing. An eye for two eyes. But what made things worse is that they have the authorities on their side.

Can you blame us? Yes. Can you blame us!? No. Can you REALLY blame us? …I really don’t know

This was the result of living in constant fear. We as men were emasculated and pushed to the edge and wash up on the shores of madness. So we waited. Waited for whatever they were going to throw at us. Yes. We were nervous, afraid, angry, confused.

And on a night when the tension was at it’s utmost peak, nightfall came and so did the suspected raid. Everyone in my community knew that it was going to be a rough night. But before all Hell literally broke loose and swallowed up casualties on both sides…I woke up.

I’ve never woken up with such conviction to not go right back to sleep. In my groggy state, I tried to deal with my disbelief about what just happened. Thoughts such as “How can people do that to each other?” and “why are we such animals?” danced around the cobwebs in my head. But that’s when I realized- this wasn’t just a dream. This was world history. A sad sickening reality.

This can’t possibly be what we were put on Earth to do. Clearly, Satan and his associates aren’t the only ones who have fallen from grace.

This can’t be life…

What I’ve been seeing lately, especially via social media, is women sporting this emotional aloofness and detachment when it comes to romantic relationships with men and even their friendships. Though we all know better than to believe everything we read on social media, what people post is what they either are, or WISH to be. So that means they’re wishing to become closed off.

This one pretty young lady posted on her Twitter, “Never show no love to no n****.” Really? Never, ever? You know, its hard for me to believe that ALL these women are as unemotional as they are claiming to be when it comes to men. BUT if they are, then it’s like the song by the band The Academy Is…” goes… “Ah ah ah ah ah Now we’ve got a big big mess on our hands tonight!”

Why?

In my humble opinion, one of the most beautiful things about a woman is her emotional awareness, understanding and openness. Women help and show us men how to explore a side of us that we are very uncomfortable to approach or deal with. Without constant group meetings, facilitated by a strong woman, I would never be comfortable enough to write this post, promoting emotional awareness and vulnerability or even dare live it.

So to my women- my beautiful & emotionally aware women;  The Lord didn’t give you emotions just to deny them. Though one must be careful because they can deceive us, it isn’t wrong to be honest with them. Don’t view what empowers you as a weakness to be overcome. Instead, learn to use it for the good of all mankind.

#Superheroes #WonderWomen

“…for the past 33 years, i’ve looked in the mirror and asked myself, if today were the last day of my life would i want to do what i am about to do today. And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, i know i need to change something. Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”

-Steve Jobs, Standford Commencement Speech 2005

TheUPproject Wrap-UP

What an inspirational figure…

This is acappella group is NO joke. These boys are serious. Check out the vids and you’ll definitely see what I’m talking about.

Urban Propaganda Wrap-UP

Those boys are getting AT it!

When Did Our Queens Become Our B—-es????

I can’t understand this new trend.

I was on the train coming home from work and I overheard these young black men no older than 19, talking it shocked me to hear how much they used the word “B—-” when referring to a woman. Admittedly, I shouldn’t have been shocked; as we already know how frivolously the N word is tossed around.

But with them, it didn’t even matter if they were attempting to say something seemingly positive about a woman and I emphasis the word “seemingly” because any positive notion about the woman mentioned was followed by what they wanted to do to her-sexually of course. They weren’t looking to wine and dine this b—-, nah chill with that corny s— n—-! Ughhhh

Then one proceeded to talk about his disgust with a young lady he was sleeping with and her developing a strong attachment to him. He went into detail about their sexual encounters at an audible volume good enough for the other ladies and gentlemen on the train to hear.

Though my heart hurt the more he spewed his lava of ignorance, can I really blame him? Just look around at our culture now! There is a steady decline in the amount of young ladies carrying themselves as just that; ladies. And don’t get me started on the pop stars who are quickly degrading themselves in an effort to garner more attention. Kelly Rowland and Keri Hilson, I’m definitely looking at you.

But let’s look at who these young men are looking up to as well. On the track “N—– in Paris” off the “Watch the Throne” album, Jay-Z references his wife with the line “I got that hot b—- in my home” and not to be out done, Kanye responds with “You know how many hot b—-es I own!?” Yeeeeesh…the lines alone are bad enough but what’s worse is that some women see no problem with it.

But these two have already shown that they just don’t know better so let’s look at someone who does, like J Cole.

Throughout his entire album he is consistently degrading women as mere semen receptacles but then shows that he knows the strength and beauty of a woman as a nurturer, and life giver. Just listen to “Lost Ones” or “Lights Please”. J. Cole is no fool but it doesn’t seem as if he even knows how to feel about women and the lack of respect he gives their bodies and emotions.

But for us, I implore you to not get caught up in the hype of disrespecting yourself, your people or your soul. It just doesn’t make any sense. Royalty is a state of mind. You can either be a King or a Queen or just another n—- or b—-. The choice is yours.

Article by: Wax P.

J Cole finally gets off the bench for his debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story. For those unfamiliar with Jermaine Cole’s record, he has put up impressive hip hop high school numbers with his 3 previous mixtapes, building a Lebron like Hype… but this is the big leagues now. The question is; does J Cole’s game translate well over to the Pros?

My few first initial spins of the album gave me a lukewarm reception. A large percentage of the first 10 tracks were released months and even years before the album. Also, J Cole seems to forcibly insert an interlude that feels out of place. The more I listened to the album the Cole’der it got.

There are no bad songs on this album. J Cole truly shines when delivering deep self-reflective verses. These moments however are scattered about the album. The album itself plays like a pendulum. From track to track and sometimes within the same track J Cole swings back and forth from running through hoes, to falling in love(probably with a ho), to a more sympathetic stance on the struggles of women coming into their own… and then back to running through hoes again. Snoop said “We don’t love them hoes”, apparently Jermaine didn’t get the memo. J Cole himself seems lost on what message he is trying to convey. The strongest message on the album “Lost Ones” is completely lost when the next song “Nobody’s Perfect” starts.

While each track delivers stories that a large percentage of people can relate to, the sequence in which the overall story is told is poorly strung together. J Cole’s Cole World: The Pendulum Story is a nice debut but it’s no slam dunk. I give this album 4 ups out of 5

-Wax P.(Twitter: Wax_Paper)

Why Listen to Wax P? Because when it comes to music, especially hip hop, you have three roles that people function in. Those that create the music, those who blindly go forth and ride the hype wave, and those who truly try to appreciate, dissect and then reassemble the art in hopes of gaining a deeper understanding. Wax P has fit himself into the third role.  Lucky enough for the UP community, we are able to reap the benefits of having “The Man With the Golden Ear” in our crew.

-eze