Good Kids, Mad Cities.

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TNC mulls Kendrick Lamar‘s latest over at the NYT:

I must confess my bias. I grew up in Baltimore during a time when the city was in the thrall of crack and Saturday night specials. I’ve spent most of my life in neighborhoods suffering their disproportionate share of gun violence. In each [...]

Your Monday Random-Ass Roundup: Nuts about ACORN

Today in my office, a pimp and his prostitute came looking for advice on where to score some blow and advice on how to fill out their W-2s. When I told them what they could do, they accused me of encouraging them to engage in public masturbation. I hope Beck and Co. don’t get [...]

"Let Me Wear You Out."

Ever have a song catch you off guard while you’re doing something else? I was doing some reading, and I had my “Indie Soul” playlist going when a song I love came on. I recognized it and smiled when it started, and then went back to reading. But it dragged me out of my [...]

The Beautiful Struggle.

I’ve been reading Ta-Nehisi since his time at the Village Voice back in the day. We’ve been linking to is blog for a hot minute now, because we sorta wanna be him when we grow up. (We got the hip-hop-loving, hood-raised, left-tilting political junkie part down).

I finally got to meet him [...]

Why Black People Won't Join the Republican Party.

Ta-Nehisi, again:

There’s an interesting debate about Obama’s speech going on between Ross Douthat and Andrew Sullivan over at the Atlantic’s site. Sullivan sees the Right’s reaction to Obama’s speech as tinged with racism, while Douthat thinks that the problem is that the Right is, well, Right. I think Douthat has a point, but [...]