Over the Hill

By: A Money

As the first headliner at Soulful Saturday, India Arie’s words, music, and spirit helped everyone forget about the heat in West Palm Beach, Fl this forth of July weekend. But after waiting over 2 hours for Ms. Lauryn Hill to perform, the heat began to emanate from the crowd.

Hill’s eight-piece jazz band practiced runs until DJ Irie hit the wheels, soothing the audience. Shortly after, he announced that The Roots-originally slated to follow Lauryn-were up next.

The Legendary Roots proved again that Hip Hop is still alive and able to deliver a polished, energetic, and genuine performance, keeping it fun while meeting professional standards. Talib Kweli surprised guests when he joined The Roots for a special rendition of his “Get By.”

After a very quick set-up, the rock solid upright bassist/band leader, Miles Mosley, began Lauryn’s set of remixed classics from her Grammy-winning first solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998). Hitting the stage almost three hours later than scheduled, the singer was almost unrecognizable under a large Afro wig, sunglasses and sweatshirt—in the Florida heat.

Hill shouted orders to her tight band and their perceptive leader, who followed her, despite the erratic changes she made impromptu. The performance had barely reached fifteen minutes when Hill told the crowd, “They’re telling me my time is up, but I’m going to stay till they shut me down. Tell them I’m trying to do a set here.”

It was evident the Organizers’ patience had grown thin when lights and sound were cut during the first verse of “That Thing.” The performance resumed a few minutes later, with Lauryn’s mic at half volume, muffling her voice and frustrating the crowd. A disenchanted audience began to gather their things until Rev. Al Green took the stage and performed a miracle. He wooed the disgruntled concert-goers with an immaculate and technically sound hour-long performance. Green said to the crowd, “what took y’all so long, I’ve been ready since eight o’clock!”

Bite this

There's something seriously wrong with New York....New Yorkers. Being a member of the NYC massive myself, I have every right to speak my mind.

On the rare occassion I get up early and catch some of the Today Show while I go about my morning biz. I'm not a fan of Matt Laurer...(and no, I didn't make sure that's the correct spelling of his name) I think he's arrogant and rude with only average intelligence and fading looks, trying to hold on to his middle-aged soccer mom fan base. Needless to say, I usually turn the channel when it's his turn. But this morning, I was locked onto NBC.

I'm sure most of you remember the story a few weeks back about the man who was attacked by a guy with a power chain saw in the subway ? Yep, straight out of a movie type sh**. Imagine....you're waiting behind that yellow line, like everyday, on your way to work...to school...to meet up with your man....you're deep in your thoughts: bills, biz, whatever...ipod on....looking at everyone around you--but not. And all of a sudden, some psycho turns your nightmare into deja vu, and all the people you were prentending not to notice are still pretending not to notice you. "Game OFF!".....But no one moves to come to your rescue.

This is real!
poor dude was sawed into repeatedly on a packed subway platform and no one... NOT 1 person helped him! People prentended not to watch a man killing another man! What the f___ is going on?

Its like New York City has readopted a code of silence in subway culture.

Think about it. This is New York City...there are millionsof people walking past us everyday...we see them...we stare at them, we watch how they walk, how their asses fit into jeans, how they catch their breath after slipping through the closing doors of the car. And when they look back, we turn our heads, avert our eyes and go back to our books, tying our shoes, or reading and re-reading the ads: want to lose 30 pounds in 30 days? call this number........That's why I go to NYU.......Jacobi&Meyers Attorneys at Law.......Datelink!..........and so on.

Its like it never happened. I don't see you..................and you don't see me. We are completely aware and unaware of eachother.

The wake up call on 9/11 seemed to bring a new awakening to the city.

There was eye contact, "How are you doing?"s, for a while we saw eachother living and losing together. It was bittersweet seeing our city-.... what should have been the New ......New York City......-make that change...But after an incident like this, its evident that that special time is officially a wrap.

Believe it or not, the guy that got hacked, Michael Stienberg, 64, lived.
he too was shocked no one helped him on the platform. But the only reason-he says-- why he's here today? Jah.

i don't know about yall, but if I can't find a brotha to help me fight off a chain saw... in middIe of manhattan...I don't know if I can rock a Yankee fitted or an "I heart" anything shirt again.



Alex/A money

Definition of A Thug?

a little Nou La randomness......



"Thuggee (or tuggee) (from Hindi thag thief, from Sanskrit sthaga scoundrel, from sthagati to conceal) was an Indian network of secret fraternities sometimes described as the world's first mafia, operating from the 13th to the 19th centuries, whose members were known as Thugs. This is the origin of the term thug, as many Indian words passed into common English during British Imperial rule of India". (read Wikipedia.com for more......)


ummm.....did anyone catch that? Apparently the thuggee were a religious cult dedicated to following the Indian goddess of destruction, Kali ("time", "black", or loosely, "she who is black time"....mmmhmmm) who's also often referred to as "Ma". hmmmm.....



Parvati, Kali's flipside, is the destroyer of Evil.....



True still......Parvati rides a lion!



ok ok.....so you know i had to throw a little JAH Rastafari connect in there.......
i ain't really got no angle (tee hee)


so that's the way way back herstory of the "urban thug".......holla at us Jeezy!

xoxoxo
jaq da rippa
ya girl friday

Say Word?! The Story of Nou La (The Junior Ms. Kitt's Version)

what's that you say.....Nou La is the illest / "real"-est/supa focused/ most rope-a-dopest new crew on the straats?! Aw yeah son, awwwww yeah..........

it's the junior ms. kitt in the place to be....here to give you a little Nou La herstory...

Check The Rhyme (2001):
back in the days when we was some wee pickney dem, i had it in my mind to go to NYU for a summer high school program. so i applied, made it it in, and flew from beeyoutiful SoCal to muggy hot as hell New Yawk. on move-in day, i was stressed out, the fam was killing me, and all i wanted was to get away from my scary new roommate (A$, remember chick had everybody carrying around her s**t? whatthehell?!!) but.....OHMIGOD! Was that another BLACK girl i spied across the hall from me? indeed it was, we exchanged a few words....and that was that.....we became cool (after i initially thought that ol' girl hated me. oops! my bad....)....became good friends.....went to college together (NYU, the most expensive in the nation).....and decided after college, we third world down south cali m.i.a. ayiti st. lucian grrls was gonna give the world (cuz' we so international....mmmhmm) a run for it's money.

Award Tour (2006):
a partnership five years in the making, me and A$ are up to big ol' things with our companies (don't forget about Salt in The Wound......hold on to your britches.....we coming back). We're in the process of editing our own documentary, a tv show (hush!), some music videos, AND other folks projects (docs galore!). Not to mention the music (uh-huh, we sing, rap, and chant), and the Drama (we DID go to school for Acting and Writing, after all). so yeah yeah....some folks might say that we do too much....Jills of all trades, Masters of none.....but whatever, you can't knock us for trying to leave our marks on the universe and do what Jah has put in our hearts to do. let me worry about I-N-I and you worry about you.....word.....

we're old skool chicks wit new skool flavor......bridging the class of the past with the grimey of the day.....


Is that A$ with a football?! (Props to Jayne Kennedy- 70's era Black pin up girl)


Bet y'all thought I had locks! (Props to Eartha Kitt, the originator of "the" purr, nyah mean?)


xoxoxo
ya girl friday
signing off.......

In Case You Didn't Know......

this is who we be....

here's just a taste of the "face"...err...."faces" of Nou La....more pics and clips of A$'s weekend in the citay coming soon....WORD!



jaq da rippa aka aziza montenegro aka ya girl friday reppin' ANC stylee!



A$ aka Nikkobya the Caribbean Queen knucklin' suckas up.....

bella regal for now folks....we been slipping on the updating tip but we grindin' on the streets......

To Brooklyn We A Go......

Don't doubt it.....We Harlemites always show the borough across the bridge much love!!

Last night the crew was in full force with A$ in town from Miami......we rolled through Prospect Park last night to give nuff respek to one of the illest vets in the Reggae world...big ups to the MAN: Barrington Levy. Dude rocked the set with many a classic, giving us "110%". (We see you RED STRIPE, killing it on the bass.....yeeeeahh!).

In other BK news, folks from the beyond the bridge also showed us Uptown girls love when we were representing NL at Brooklyn Bodega's Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival. BB posted a lil video on their site (which we helped shoot, btw! Check it out at www.brooklynbodega.com or below.......)