soul food: shad k's 'we, myself, and i' [video]

from the awesomeness that is TSOL, shad k's latest single, we, myself, and i:

pure dopeness.

soul food: shad k's 'we, myself, and i' [video]

interviews: john forté

john forté talks about his upcoming album, water, light, sound:

interviews: john forté

quotables: soul mate

quotables: soul mate

soul food: k'naan 'take a minute'

...and any man who knows a thing knows he knows not a damn, damn thing at all...

soul food: k'naan 'take a minute'

a thousand [and one] hills

a few weeks ago, i was listening to zoe chace interview ms. lauryn hill on NPR. it appeared as though ms. hill was back: performing again, talking about recording again. i took to twitter and facebook and tentatively shouted it from the various virtual mountaintops. my prayers to the gods of music had been answered: ms. hill is back. i had no idea, at the time, that on her journey back, she would show up in my proverbial back yard. a little over a week ago, i was standing backstage at a concert that i had dreamed of attending since i was about 17. as the announcer began his introduction, i stood next to ms. hill as she climbed the steps to take the stage at the pan african dance festival in kigali, rwanda and i had myself a moment, y'all. i suddenly snapped out of professional organizational mode and fully realized what was happening. ms. hill was back. and she was here. in the land of a thousand hills. if you had told me 15 years ago that this was even possible, there is no way i would've been able to fathom it. but a few brilliant people with a vision and relentless determination made it happen! and i bore witness.

this is the exact time negrita's brain realized what she was witnessing.

...read more here...

a thousand [and one] hills

soul food: k'naan's bang bang

K'Naan & Adam Levine : Bang bang (2010)


yeah, i know a lot of hardcore dustyfoot philosopher fans that this video is going to give pause.
but i'm digging the imagery and the execution. dopeness.

soul food: k'naan's bang bang

linkitude

friday = awesome. it usually means i do some writing as well, but...well...my back is raging against me for God knows what, so i'm going to posts links to some food for thought that i've come across over the past week and then go lie flat in a darkened room. (shout out to the fug girls for the friday link idea)

• jina moore takes on the white reporter's burden in africa. i just started following her on twitter and then realized she had emailed me ages ago inquiring about a flat for rent. ah, small world. (jina moore)
  

• this is africa is looking for bloggers, vloggers, and coolhunters! where do i sign up? (this is africa)
  

• was just explaining black hair politics to a friend the other day, then came across this great article in clutch about the politics of hair in south africa. (clutchmagazine.com)

• and, lawd...bassey ikpi, like, TOTALLY GETS ME. i love her recent piece on the constant struggle of learning to let go and stop missing: emotional hoarding. (bassey's world)

• okayplayer (my first interweb home...ah, 1999) has launched the hugely impressive okayafrica! (okayafrica.com)

• the pan african dance festival in rwanda is on the world wide webs: official site, twitter, facebook, and blog.

• and, finally, a little bit of canadiana awesome: k-os interviewed by my SHAE sister, tastykeish on societyHAE & shad k profiled in the globe and mail.

happy friday, y'all!!

linkitude

soul food: john forte's 'your side'

so, even though i STOPPED watching the world cup after ghana was ROBBED *pause for effect*, i'm still listening to the awesome soundtrack. here's a gem that i cannot stop listening to: (via CoffeeBreakDMV)

soul food: john forte's 'your side'

la la la: when a song says it better than i can

la la la: when a song says it better than i can

quotables: going further

"Push yourself beyond when you think you are done with what you have to say. Go a little further. Sometimes when you think you are done, it is just the edge of the beginning. Probably that’s why we decide we’re done. It’s getting too scary. We are touching down onto something real. It is beyond the point when you think you are done that something strong comes out… I give this advice out of pure experience. Go further than you think you can."

Natalie Goldberg
(via Jody Watley: Style File)

quotables: going further

quotables: writing

"My advice to writers just starting out? Don’t use semi-colons! They are transvestite hermaphrodites, representing exactly nothing. All they do is suggest you might have gone to college."

Kurt Vonnegut (Armageddon in Retrospect)

via Danyel Smith

quotables: writing