Check Out David Banner’s New Cartoon “That Crook’d Sipp” on Cartoon Network

New York, NY May 11, 2007 David Banner is set to debut his thought provoking cartoon That Crook’d Sipp this Saturday Night (Sunday morning – May 13th) @ 12:15 AM on the Cartoon Network.

That Crook’d Sipp, loosely based on Banner’s life, is about a white family in Mississippi named The Beauregards who are living in Mississippi trapped in the 1800s but actually living in 2007. Virgil, a young progressive black man in Mississippi and the main character, played by Banner, tells the story of the Beauregards through his eyes. Virgil owns the hottest restaurants in the little town called Sweet Tea, Mississippi and has the most controversial group in the South called the Sweet Tea Monsters, who will really release an album as added bonus to the series.

Banner decided to use his home state as the setting of That Crook’d Sipp because “I actually think Mississippi is one of the best states as far as race relations is concerned, because Mississippi is more honest about how they feel about each other. If white folks like you, they really like you and will die for you. If they don’t like you, well that’s a different story.” That Crook’d Sipp deals societal issues of the day and allows me as a rapper to use another avenue to get the word out on issues that they may not have a chance to do through sound recordings,” states Banner.

Banner is currently in the studio working on a new album, The Greatest Story Ever Told due out late 2007. He recently had his debut as an actor in the feature film Black Snake Moan alongside Samuel Jackson and Christina Ricci and has been working on a few more movie roles over the past year.

Happy Birthday James!

Phat Kat Representing Motor City To the Fullest With New Album Entitled Carte Blanche

Brooklyn, NY April 23, 2007) Detroit native Phat Kat, aka Ronnie Cash, is set to release his second solo album, Carte Blanche on May 8th on Look Records. Carte Blanche marks the first time Phat Kat was given total creative control to cherry-pick the best beats and the best emcees to work with. The result is an example of the finest in Hip-Hop Detroit has to offer.

In the early 90’s Phat Kat, the emcee also known as Ronnie Cash, was busy making his first album in the basement of his buddys’ mom’s house.ï¿½ The group was called First Down and his partner was Jay Dee, now known as legendary DJ/producer J Dilla (R.I.P.). Since then, Phat Kat has become a permanent heavyweight on the Detroit scene. He appeared on the Representing The Streets compilation with the now-classic “Front Street,” contributed to albums by Dilla and Slum Village, and in 2004, after inking a deal with Barak, he released his first solo album The Undeniable LP.ï¿½ Phat Kat is now set to release a new solo effort entitled Carte Blanche.

Phat Kat speaks of major players in the rise of Detroit such as Proof, Eminem, D12 and Dilla with the insight of a sibling. “We all knew Detroit hip-hop had some real lyricists, more than the drug dealing, violent types that everyone assumed Detroit would be full of, and whether it was in 5 or 15 years the songs we were putting down would get their due. Unfortunately for Dilla, he had to be gone for people to come out and say he was the greatest ï¿½ I’ve always said that,” says Phat Kat.ï¿½ In the wake of Dilla’s passing and with the national spotlight securely focused on Detroit Hip-Hop for more than a minute now, Phat Kat puts it on his shoulders “To give the world a crash course of Detroit Hip-Hop. This is what it is.” Almost everyone associated with Carte Blanche represents the D. Dilla contributes five tracks, but the work of up-and-coming producers Nick Speed, Young RJ, and Black Milk is just as impressive. Other guests include SV’s Elzhi and T3, Truth Hurts, Melanie Rutherford, Fat Ray, Loe Louis and Guilty Simpson. Rather than pursuing cameos and features from overexposed stars, Phat Kat chose instead to work with his peoples from the D, figuring “The people I got on my album is just as hot as people that’s out.”

Detroit Hip-Hop appears to be a mainstay on the mantle of Hip-Hop’s elite cities. Phat Kat has been in the mix before it was on anyone’s radar and associated with all the major players thereafter.ï¿½ With Carte Blanche, Phat Kat delivers an album that gives us all we’ve come to appreciate about Detroit MCs: it is intricate but still intimate, hardcore but still lyrical.ï¿½ Along the way, we are introduced to the up-and-coming torchbearers of Detroit Hip-Hop and we are also given another chance to vibe with a fallen legend.ï¿½ Carte Blanche will be released on May 8th on San Francisco based Look Records.

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Book Review:Total Chaos

Hip-Hop’s transformation from an organic folk culture bred in the Bronx with roots in Afro-diasporic cultural practices into a commercially-successful zeitgeist of cool has put a lot of the artform’s core values at stake. After 30 years of popping, scratching, emceeing, tagging, Phat Farm, Def Jam, BET and The Source questions of hip-hop’s death, authenticity and its ability to empower future hip-hop heads are some of the concerns addressed in Total Chaos. Veteran hip-hop journalist Jeff Chang who’s Cant Stop Wont Stop history of hip-hop earned him the Deems Taylor award last year assembled various practitioners to tease out these arguments about the past/present/future of hip-hop. Understanding the cultural rhythm of hip-hop by dissecting its creed seems to be the adventure of hip-hoppers 30 and over. The fans who lack the initimate knowledge of the Golden Era and before don’t gripe as much about the various turns corporate politics has created in the mainstream distributions of the music. Some argue that times have changed and the old guards of the art need to accept the new voices and their values which reflect contemporary times. Nas’s declaration that hip-hop is dead has stirred this conversation both ways and it situates the concerns of Chang’s book which hopes to dismantle hip-hop’s canon from the inside. Chang’s interview with Tim’m West and Juba Kalamka tramples the official idea that hip-hop is hetereosexual art. The two founders of the Bay Area homohop group Deep DickCollective address the invisible queer history of hip-hop by their presence and discussion of downlow boys in the cipher and gay visual pioneers Keith Haring and Jean Michael Basquiat. Long before the praises of hypermasculinity hip-hop heads and house music lovers shared the same dance floor but openly gay emcees are still new to the mainstream. You can “hear” the chip on their shoulders obviously coming from the irony that hip-hop was a response from the powerless to take power and by the early ’90s the artform was mimicking its original oppressor.

Accomplished grafitti writers Cey Adams and Brent Rollins argue that the same big company attitude that has enveloped hip-hop has caused its commercial art direction to suffer as well. From spray-painting trains to pen and pixel images and the popularity of professional photo-editing software Photoshop, hip-hop’s visuals have been cheapened. Snoop’s Doggystyle is cited as the best example of poor illustration thanks to nepotism (his cousin did it) and Public Enemy’s Fear Of A Black Planet’s superior visuals and sales captured the awe of record companies, fans and fellow artists. As much as the computer is derided for making lesser quality optical outings cheesiness has always had its place in hip-hop one specific example being the Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince second album cover. The usual issue of misogyny in gangsta rap is traced to its roots in American stereotypes about Black women by Joan Morgan and Mark Anthony Neal. They compare notes from racist ideologies of the red-hot mamas to the words and actions of male rappers and journalists. Morgan’s previously unknown admission that Mike Tyson’s rape trial was handled by tax lawyers who cast him as a small-brained big phallus-carrying animal explains why hip-hoppers of both genders need to leave the hypermasculinity and hoedom alone. By the end of the book Chang successfully travels over several mini histories of hip-hop that answers Nas’s decalaration with proof of hip-hop’s life in crisis not death. KRS-One said that Nas’s stance was more of a warning than a definitive casket-closing. These essays within the anthology stake out problem areas in the music and culture that can be healed and force hip-hop to turn on its head and reclaim its insurgent but fun spirit.