by Ajani Husbands
(Esface Black)

It’s about setting a higher standard.  There was a time when Black musicians were activists, almost by default.  This is what we’re missing from the Lena Horne generation and the creativie genius of Guru.  We have lost voices who put social consciousness ahead of personal gain.  No, that’s not quite accurate.  For these two, there could be no personal gain without a social conscious.

Lena Horne famously refused to play in segregated venues, attended NAACP rallies (back when the NAACP was synonymous with social conscious), and worked to create anti-lynching laws.  And though Guru wasn’t in the spotlight of activism, the entire persona of his music embodied a social consciousness, the understanding of which was necessary to truly know the conditions of the underclass.

And, now, fast forward to today.

Chris Brown’s music is fantastic.  R. Kelly’s music is mesmerizing.  Nevertheless talent doesn’t excuse criminal behavior.  And yes, we are speaking of criminal behavior rather than socially bizarre antics or even behavior against the grain of widely accepted moral norms.  You can’t beat up a woman and you can’t urinate on a minor without consequences… unless you’re a Black entertainer apparently.

They are not to blame though.  No.  After all, as a community we have constantly let slide ridiculously embarassing behavior from our top entertainers for the past decade.  There was DMX who had no idea a Black man was running for President: “ain’t no ni&&a named ‘Ba-rack’ runnin for president.”  There was Soulja Boy who infamously thanked the slave masters (for slavery of course) so that he could be born in America and “get all this ice.”  And most recently there’s the reports of Lil Boosie hiring hit men to kill five different people.  While Boosie and DMX are on no one’s top five list of rappers, Soulja Boy is, for the moment, a millionaire. And thus we have a Black millionaire in the limelight who loves slave masters… but we’d be more concerned if his next single didn’t bump quite right.

Perhaps entertainers today are at a bit of a disadvantage, given the speed of information today and the media’s inevitable negative slant.  After all, we know more details Michael Jackson allegedly sleeping with children than we do about his charitable donations.  Snoop Dogg is more known for gangster lyrics than coaching a 72 team youth football league in south LA.  All the same, would this not be all the more reason for celebrities to tread with caution?

This isn’t about forgiveness, it’s about standards.  The biggest issue right now is not whether or not one “forgives” Chris Brown (a ridiculoud concept, since that’s between him, Rihanna, and his God), but instead the blind excuses given to defend his actions.  Comments on blogs and news articles alike are swamped with Black men and WOMEN who come up with every excuse in the book to defend his assault on Rihanna:

“she had it coming.”

“she was probably talking too much anyway”

“I’m pretty sure she hit him.”

“What’s the big deal? Women get hit all the time.  Nothing special.”

“I think she lied in that police report.”

The list goes on and only gets more disturbing.  The defense was similar for R. Kelly, with many people blaming the underaged girl as being the culprit, not the adult male who should have known better.

And this is what I mean by a higher standard.  Yes we all make mistakes, but we as a community are going out of our way to excuse these mistakes and sweep them under the rug.

Fame and fortune is a privelege, not a right.  Those of Lena Horne’s generation had to fight against daily obstacles to attain success and had to keep a clean nose to retain it.  Holding our artists today to a higher standard doesn’t mean a “crabs in a barrel” mentality (which I’ve already been accused of).  It means letting them know if they beat up a woman, urinate on a minor, or anyother behavior that would land a normal person on Hard Copy, we will not make excuses for them.  We will call it what it is: criminal behavior.  And we will search for quality elsewhere.  After all, Chris Brown doesn’t sing and dance good ENOUGH to warrant my support at a criminal hearing.

The highly anticipated Iphone 4 was finally unveiled by Steve Jobs this morning…be the first to watch his introduction to the “unbelievable” newly designed Apple iphone with over 100 new features, this video covers the top EIGHT.

I’m still an avid blackberry user and evangelist however I’m a bigger fan of Apple product design/superiority so it was only a matter of time before I converted my phone game…this could do it. If could have both I would but that’s a bit frivolous. Nuff said, check it out…

more specs from the apple website, click here.

So I just received a word from esface affiliate/friend Vaman about a new website that, to me, will fill the void left by known music website Imeem.com that was obliterated from the internet after being swallowed by Myspace.com. Without further ado, welcome grooveshark.com to the online music scene.

From what I’ve gathered with my limited recent experience, Grooveshark allows you to search a database of millions of tracks to stream music with customized playlists and share them with friends on various platforms. That’s the long and short, there are plenty more features I’ve yet to play with.

Let me stop here and let you set up an account and start enjoying your musical cyber experience.
grooveshark.com
Stay Esface. -D Sobo

written by Esfac’e Black

Aaron McGruder returns with HOT FIRE.  The Boondocks Season 3 kicked off with one of the most pertinent issues in the Black community: Barack Obama and YOU. I won’t spoil the episode if you didn’t see it, but the moral of the story is simple: Barack Obama is the President, and he’s Black.  He’s not the Black President.  Get it?  Because if you haven’t gotten by now, you lose….. (outdated Kanye West reference).

The episode begins with a German filmmaker producing a documentary on Huey Freeman.  The filmmaker can’t figure out why Huey isn’t excited about Obama becoming president.  At the same time, he interviews every other outlandish character in the Boondocks universe and you get the full gamut of true-to-life reactions.

Riley- “The cops gonna be like Riley’s a real ni&&a.  The president’s a real ni&&a.  We can’t do NOTHIN.”

Sarah/Tom Dubois- “He’s just so great!”

Granddad- “This is what me and my generation, but mostly me, struggled for.”

Uncle Ruckus-…. you know what, just watch the episode.  His reaction is much funnier in context

Thugnificent- “There’s a ni&&a running for president named Barack?!?!”  (this is based on a real XXL Magazine interview with DMX)
All these reactions are pretty much what you encountered during the campaign.  McGruder summed it up with his faux Will-I-Am track “D*** Riding Obama,” which is basically an ode to all the celebrities who jumped on the Obama bandwagon.

But I digress.  McGruder emphasized something that is hard to remember.  Obama is PRESIDENT.  Not THE BLACK PRESIDENT. And Black people who tried to emphasize this during the campaign were vilified.

“Skeptics are treated like blasphemers.  Difference becomes equal to hate.” - The Boondocks

Just because Huey Freeman (or fill-in-the-blank-random-person) isn’t skeptical of Obama, doesn’t make them an Uncle Tom, a racist, a Clarence Thomas, a sellout, etc etc.  It just means they are skeptical/critical of the Obama presidency.  I’ll take it a step further: We should all be skeptical, just like we’ve been skeptical of presidents in the past.  Complacency breeds mediocrity.  And if we were all of a sudden to just be okay with whatever the president did, just because of the color of the president’s skin, then we’d be a mediocre country.

Besides, if we never critiqued/analyzed our elected leaders, then is it really a democracy?

I stopped watching the news a long time ago; it’s terrible.  I mean… there’s no other way to put it.  If I’m not being fed partisan politics, I’m being given filler stories (i.e. “the world’s largest or most popular dog”) or scare stories (i.e. “tune in at 6 to find out what foods at the grocery store can, and WILL, kill you”).  It’s just aweful.

And then I stumble onto this blog article about Stephen Stafford.  And that’s just the thing, it’s not on the news.  I mean, this kid’s story is just about NOWHERE on the national news.  Seriously, where is his 15 minutes?  30 minutes?  Even his 10 minutes on Oprah (equivalent to about 5 hours of television exposure elsewhere… do the math).

The fact alone that he’s a motivational speaker at age 13 is newsworthy enough.  But you add to that him going to college at 13, triple majoring, and getting ready to go to med school, and he’s phenomenal.  Most REGULAR college students can’t do that.

So where is his story?  Well, as much to blame as is the news, I’m going to blame you, the reader.  Us, the community.  If we’re not demanding more stories like Stephen Stafford be shown, then what really do we want?

KRS-One once said “the people really have the government they want.  If they were dissatisfied, they’d be out rebelling right now.”  Let’s substitute “government” for “news.”

Let’s face it.  The only consistently positive coverage we’ve seen of Black people on the news as of late is people getting rescued from rubble in Haiti.  And even that momentum has changed with the news coverage of the missionaries arrested for attempted trafficking.

So what can we do? No one ever writes to their news station.  I’m going to write to my television stations in Washington, D.C. and demand for more coverage of stories like Stephen Stafford.  Stay tuned for a draft letter that YOU can send to your TV stations.

Got the following clip from my LA associate G.Vitte at www.gvitte.com, take some time out to be inspired by one of the most successful entertainers in Hollywood…my man Will Smith.  Be Moved. Stay Esface.

By Ajani Husbands

The same day I read about the ten percent unemployment rate in America, I read about ordinary Americans who became millionaires through basic financial savvy.

Financial times are tough for all.  500,000 workers lost their jobs in January alone (that’s the entire population of smaller countries), and those numbers continued for months.  If you are fortunate enough to still have employment, being financially savvy is no longer a lifestyle choice; it is a must.  At the same time, read about the people in the article above.  They all made certain lifestyle decisions that paid off massive dividends in the long run.  Just as importantly, tightening your belt doesn’t mean losing your day to day swagger.  Here are a few simple tips on reducing your overall expenditures while maintaining the same, and possibly better, lifestyle.

Your Work Outfit:

Dry clean the suits.  Wash and iron the shirts. Dry cleaning costs can add up quickly.  Even if you are hitting up one of the “same day, $1.25 per shirt” stores, you’re talking at least 5 shirts a week (7 if you’re going out on the weekends) and 1 or 2 pairs of khakis.  That’s almost $9.00 each week, $36 a month, $432 a year.  Yea, that’s a cross-country plane ticket.  Now you see what I mean.

While suits are absolutely dry clean only, you can always throw your shirts in the laundry and wake up an hour early to iron them yourself.  Besides, you’ve been running late to work anyway, and with people losing jobs left and right, you might as well start coming early.…
Read more..

Fact: For decades, the issue what defines “good hair” has been a controversial topic among many communities, particularly in the Black community. Recently at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, Chris Rock won an award for his comical yet real documentary entitled “Good Hair” which take a look into the culture and industry of “good hair” around the world. Check out the trailer below and go see it in theaters in October, coming to select theaters Oct. 9th and nationally on the 23rd. Should be a classic documentary, I’ve never been a huge fan of his films (can you name me a classic…non-stand up?) but seems like this style of documentary is right up his ally, much like his stand up comedy. This film is definitely Esface so I’ll probably watch it four times.

The always fashionable Kanye West has recently been interviewed by men.style.com to list his top 10 Must-Have Wardrobe staples!  Click here to see details.  As expected, his recomendations are street cool, luxurious (check out the white tux jacket)…and of course, accessorized with a little Louis Vuitton. Thank you slamhype for the info on one of our favorite, stylish and talented artists.

A talented  group of teens from Venice, CA have created a brilliant software program called Fast Fit 360.  Seeing as the new American trend is to manufacture clothing oversesas, this interactive program allows the client and vendor to have “virtual” fit sessions without having to travel to the factory itself.  “Fast Fit 260″ has been called the “MySpace of Fashion,” by   By reducing the costs of travel and time consuming meetings, businesses can can not only expidite their work flow, but also add more money to their bottom line.  For more info click here to read the entire article from the California Apparel News.