"Can't make it to ballots to choose leadership/But we can make it to Jacob's and to the dealership" -- Kanye West To many, the words "Hip Hop" and "Political Convention" don't even   

"If skills sold, truth be told, I'd probably be lyrically, Talib Kweli ..." -- Jay-Z I guess it's official: The latest issue of Complex Magazine (a relatively new Hip Hop/fashion monthly)  

If the secret to meditation is found in the breath Then speech is another form of meditativeness ... ­ KRS-One, "Ocean Within" I wonder how many Hip Hop heads knew that May 16­23   

They say every hero needs a theme song. The same can be said about columnists, too. Sometime around spring break of 1989 or 1990 a college friend and I decided to sojourn from Cincinnati to West   

"Can you see the pride in the panther, as he glows in splendor and grace?" ­ Mos Def When I developed the concept for The Ledge (my monthly column focusing on positive Hip Hop music an  

"In my neighborhood, when you're shot, you get up and keep going." -- 50 Cent Within a single week during February 2003, over 800,000 people flocked to the stores to hear the Queens-bred r  

Imagine a 60-year-old man standing in a grocery store checkout line with a portable CD player blasting a classic Mos Def and Talib Kweli mixtape. That will be me in 20 or so years, unable to shake  

Eminem and Sista Souljah: Imagine if she had been in the studio when those derogatory lyrics came out of Em's mouth! Ja Rule and Luther Vandross: If Ja insists on singing his lyrics, he should t  

"We need to expand rap beyond this land/Set up competitions with England and Japan " -- KRS-One, "Build Ya Skills" A friend recently convinced me to lift my ban of Eminem's sadly predic  

Lately it seems as though the five-member, conscious Hip Hop collective known as the Watusi Tribe is Cincinnati's best-kept secret. Despite their tireless weekly performances (locally and in othe