Had my second audition for a very controversial play examining race, performance, and minstrelsy going down at New York’s Public Theater. Wish me luck!

The UC Board of Regents approved student fee increases on Nov. 19 against the backdrop of protests around the 10-campus system, including one at UC Davis that ended with the arrest of more than 50 people who refused to leave the Mrak Hall lobby at closing time.

“Adriel,
I noticed you, as well as the rest of ILL, haven’t made any comments on the recent UC Strike or the situation. I would appreciate your comments on the matter and your support for the cause. I currently go to your alma mater and was sad I didn’t get to see Dahlak perform. I was out protesting at Mrak Hall where the 52 were arrested. Please come back to UCD to perform again! I would give anything to see you guys in person Thank you and God Bless.
- G’Mae”

Not to shit on anyone’s efforts, sacrifices, or methods, but to be blunt…

5 reasons why this is a bad idea (Please Read ALL 5):

1.  Because they are laughing at you. I got this picture from a liberal news source and even THEY thought it was fitting to capture – what I believe to be – a serious protest with the above picture of a wholesome-looking, smiley, cheerful white girl on her way to Yolo County Jail.  Not that there is anything wrong with a wholesome-looking, smiley, cheerful white girl – I LOVE wholesome-looking, smiley, cheerful white girls.  They are great for romantic comedies.  But this is not the face of revolution.  This looks more like an advertisement for Legally Blonde 3.  Your protest is being painted as a farce.  Therefore, your protest is being taken as a joke.

2.  You don’t wanna taint your criminal record over a joke.  Especially you people of color who are probably feeling the worst end of the increased fees. Because at the end of the day, wholesome-looking, smiley, cheerful white girl is going to have a way easier time finding a job than you – especially with a mark on your record for protesting the college you didn’t graduate from because you didn’t have enough money to pay the hiked fees you were protesting.  Fucked up, right?

3.  It’s a dated method.  At best, it’s publicity stunt.  At worst, it’s communal tantrum throwing.  When’s the last time you heard somebody say, “Whew, that ‘hell no, we won’t go’ chant really got them thinking about social justice”.  Because the fact of the matter is, you WILL go.  And CNN WILL stop reporting it.  And the people who are not vested in the cause will drop off.  The Regents just have to defend their position, not harm you, and wait it out.

4.  You have no leverage.  You come to the table with no power.  Not that you have none but you protest with the mentality of the powerless.  As if you are asking for something.  As if you NEED to ask for something.  What you don’t realize is that they need YOU.  To pay their salary.  To keep them in the U.S. News Top 50.  To give meaning to that piece of paper that says you graduated from their college.  You have SO much power – which moves me to my final point -

5.  Organize a quarter-off.  It will be the easiest revolution ever.  Take a vacation.  Get a job.  Do something you’ve always wanted to do.  Get away from school.  You know how easy this will be to sell to other college students.  You/Mom/Dad won’t have to pay ridiculous school fees.  You won’t have to pay back student loans yet.  You can earn extra money.  You can organize an educational trip to Madrid or Paris or Argentina, etc.  No midterms or finals.  AND it’s for a cause???  Watch how quick those fees drop if you can convince even a quarter of those undergraduates how easy, beneficial, and personally advantageous taking a quarter off of school can be.   They will start negotiating even if they catch word that you are actively organizing a college strike.  A REAL strike.  A strike that YOU can afford at this point of your life.  They can’t.  And that’s where your power lies.  In the extreme case that this doesn’t work, you can and will go back or, if you really can’t afford it, drop out of UC Davis.  But this is what the situation would have forced you to do anyways.  There is no real loss for you.

Fight the power, ya’ll.  But fight the power with power.  And that’s the truth, Ruth.  Best of luck to you.

When: TODAY, November 22nd from 6-10pm
Where: Poleng Lounge, 1751 Fulton Street, S.F.
What: “Our close friend (more like family), Judah Harris, is being wrongly accused and he is being charged with 2 Consecutive Life Sentences. We are confident that the evidence in the case will absolve him of these erroneous charges. However, we fear that with a general public defender, Judah will not receive a just defense. We are hosting a fundraiser on Sunday, November 22nd from 6-10pm at the Poleng Lounge in San Francisco” - Vajra Watson, Director of Research & Policy for Equity, CRESS Center, UC Davis School of Education.

Hosted by ME (Dahlak). Please come out and support if you are in the area. I know far too well the inequities of the legal system and I could not, in good conscious, let even a friend of a friend suffer without a fair trial.

The “post-album-release” time is always a very special part of my process. I listen to feedback, re-listen to my songs with new insights, critique my weaknesses, focus on my strengths, and then begin planning a method to improve my music. But before going forward (here comes the cliche) I must always look back – to understand my motives, to check my impressionability, and to evaluate how well (or poorly) I’ve converted life into art.

So on this funky Friday, I figured it would only be appropriate to share the sounds that have funked our eardrums and birthed the first chapter of iB4the1.

Fela Kuti “Water No Get Enemy” + The Price Is Right = “Gentleman’s Kool-Aid”

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De La Soul “Trying People”+ Tilt = “The HereNow”

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OutKast “Da Art of Storytelling pt.2” + Drizzletron’s sanity (or lack thereof) = “Finding Emo”

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Black Eyed Peas “Alive” x Micheal Jackson’s passing = “Circus Nights”

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therefore, =

And that’s just the production. What say YA’LL, Drizz? N.I.C.? Ada?

Anybody wanna see me rock out to “Finding Emo” and “Black Genius” on the piano at my alma mater? This is where I’ll be tonight! I’M BACK, CALI!

IT’S HEEEEEEERE!!

FROM OUR PRESS RELEASE:

Visionary, Hyper-Creative iLL-Literacy Crew Prepared to Change The Way You Listen to Music

iLL-Literacy Releases First Chapter Of Three-Part iB4the1

Short on attention span but long in ultra-creative, psychedelic rhymes, Oakland trio iLL-Literacy has some ambitious plans for the next few months. iLL-Lit is aiming to reshape not only the way that music is made but the way it’s distributed. Emcees Drizzleton, Dahlak, and N.I.C. are gearing up for the first of three release dates for their new album iB4the1.1 (pronounced I Before The 1, Chapter 1). Confused? Don’t be. It’s just the future.

iLL-Literacy will be releasing iB4the1 in three chapters. The first, Chapter 1, will be released on November 17. Because iLL-Literacy believes that traditional means of marketing and distribution have become obsolete, they are releasing all three chapters for free on their website (www.ill-literacy.com). In an effort to further obliterate the mold, iLL-Lit has partnered with street fashion legend C+ Jewelry to create USBiLL (pronounced “Us Be iLL”), a line of custom limited edition flash drives. A convenient and reusable alternative to CDs, USBiLL will be the primary physical form of the complete iB4the1 trilogy of releases.

iB4the1 may be their debut “album,” but the members of iLL-Literacy have known each other since birth and it shines through on their tracks. They boast a fully formed vision and aesthetic that few groups, especially young groups, can match. When asked about iB4the1, Drizzleton described it as an epic. He postulates that the ideal listening context for Chapter 1 would be on “either a short car drive…or upon the back of a spiny-toothed wombat in Africa, while watching Planet Earth on mute.”

In case you were somehow still worried that the iLL-Literate trio was lacking in ambition, allow Dahlak to describe Chapter 1: “Despite its brevity, .1 is grand in its effort to bridge sampled voice and original instrumentation, experimental music and hip-hop narrative. The sound of iLL-Literacy draws character from an unusual blend of influences, spanning funk, afro beat, alternative, soul and of course hip-hop. This is iLL-Lit before the start. The prequel to the saga. iLL-Lit before the One. Take that how you want.”

DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD DAMMIT!!

I can’t even post my own crew’s EPK in a timely web manner. And I saw it before it was even uploaded!

iLL-Literacy Experience: The Live Show from ill-literacy on Vimeo.

Imagine James doing this with the lego head on!

Remember “Me & Mrs. Jones”? Yeah, that wasn’t Marvin Gaye. That song was belched out of the vocal cords of one the most slept on R&B Jazz singers in recent history – Billy Paul. A recent documentary Am I Black Enough For You has brought the silent legend closer to the public eye, unfolding some of the reasons the classic “Me & Mrs. Jones” was the peak of his career while addressing the racial politics of the 1970′s music industry. While watching the movie on my flight back from Europe, I heard a song of his my brother sampled years ago and it’s been in constant rotation on the iTunes ever since. Check out “War of the Gods” by Billy Paul and once you start wondering why you hadn’t heard of him before, watch the trailer for Am I Black Enough For You below.

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Quote of the Day: “God kicked you out of heaven ’cause ya didn’t pay your rent!”