money talks in another kind of slang

Cause I can't feel the field n!ggas chains
Though I covered mine, so I uncovered mine in bling
Then I bumped into a bum and covered mine in shame
Then I bumped into a hon and uncovered mine again

Somehow I have managed to do come out decently financially onsidering the money management training and upbringing and childhood that I had. I think back to the days of Durant Ave and that corner store I spent many dollar bills on chips, honey buns, and soda. You know, your regular ho-hum, junk food staples. Somehow, I managed to take the bad examples I had about savings and leveraged that into a thirst for not repeating the cycle of poverty. And I'm still not quit there yet, because my a$s is straight up on the cusp; barely with my head above water due to some unfortunate outcomes, but it's whatever. At least I am not living check-to-check....yet.

It's harder than sitting with a blind man and trying to describe yellow
-Lupe Fiasco, "Theme Music to a Drive-By"

I am proud of what I have been able to do thus far. Paid for seven years of school myself and ended up with less student loan debt than I had feared. Had (not the as tense) paid off all the credit card bills. Just copped the 2nd crib less than three years after graduating. Balling on a budget as usual. Well, more like scrimmaging. I cannot stomach too much flossing for fun. So anyways, I do recognize that I still have much to learn and there is plenty of room for improvement in terms of my financial acumen. I used to have a subscripion to Money magazine and always found each issue to be great. Speaking of which, I think my Black Enterprise subscription also expired. Hmm. Wonder how and when that happened? Oh well. Time to get the game face on and pick up the pace. I copped a couple of books to read to help get me on the right track (hopefully). Plus, the student loan debt does hurt, but I would love to accelerate the pace at which I get rid of it. At one point, I had a pretty good system and plan in place. I need to get back to that and then not only stick with it, but also enhance it. Things have gotten serisouly awry lately. Thus, while I'm gettin my shT togeher I think I'm going to share whatever joints I come across that I feel were worth my time. Starting with these three:

Don't chase equity with a pricey automobile
by Michelle Singletary

Even in sky-high market, buying beats renting
by Scott Burns

Lessons kids can take to the bank
by Michelle Singletary

They are trained to pimp pre-pubescence into adolescent strawberries

felt the need to share this. i may have to read it at some open mic. it's not my own, but speaks to me. feeling it immensely. your thoughts?

In Self-Defense of Hip Hop: Reaiming Rutger's Rifle

Come evening, lonely gunmen wander cracked out concrete streets
prowling empty back alleys and hallways
for prey to satisfy their lust for profit.
It drips liquid cyanide
onto childhood veins;
god be we with those who cross their path
they will turn a women's womb into wishbone
broken
They are trained to pimp pre-pubescence into adolescent strawberries
carve child soldiers out of orphans
like these government giving children guns
and telling them to play god
scenario replayed at checkpoint and
our hoods when we pulled over
and over.
It is no wonder we wander ebony nights
hoodies pulled over our head
hiding our face from the shame ingrained in us at birth
for daring to be beautiful in such an ugly environment.

We of the darker melanin do here by proclaim
we must stop pointing fingers
stop pointing guns
stop pulling triggers
and stop blaming hip-hop for everything.
For any microphones check will reflect
from murder to mayhem
that when it comes to violence on the block
Hip Hop never bombed Beirut or Iraq.
Who built n'orleans and watts
who were the cops who shot Biggie and Pac
Fred Hampton as he slept, Malcolm X in his chest
who designed the tech nine?
whose next in the specs of their Virginia Tech mind?
That may seem politically incorrect
but anger manifests when told to check tongue
yet no one checks textbooks.
For last I looked
Columbus was riding dirty
with thirty conquistadores
way before this art form was ever born.
calling Tainas nappy headed hoes
way before any Imis radio shows
way before any hip hop radio flows
and the only way I know this
is it inscribe onto the inside of the souls that we speak.
Young Afro-Indigenous drum tongue
metamorphous musical Morse code
that we beat through the soles of our feet
cuz we creative like that.
What's your worth?
We are audio Aztec sacrifice in reverse
giving birth to heart beats.
Why you think we dance so well;
every movement
a prayer for serenity
ever rhyme a
teardrop to the divine
to remind us
that life is more
than icing your wrist
more than slicing your wrists.

There is a rift in our consciousness
like continental divide
and conquer
we caught up in chaotic remix
between Columbines and concubines
Wounded Knee and Palestine
blaming the rhyme of an mc
who make the crowd move so well
while the police move to the beat of a beatdown that
Sean Bell knows so well
little Pena knows so well
my brother knows violence so well
it leaves swelling bruises every time baton finds
luck slipping
when he's sleeping in the park
5.0's flows beat him down like breaking bones
and he doesn't even listen to hip hop
he listens to rock

that other art form cursed like
Black Sabbath blamed for Black Sunday
Led Zeppelin and John Lenin
are searching for heaven
as Pink Floyd writes manifestos to
graffiti and future
for the Writings on the Wall

It states:
there is a day coming
beyond migrant fields and mortuaries
when my tongues gun will not again be necessary
to speak in self defense
of our turquoise reality
sunflowers will grow at our feet
the hearts rhythm the only beating we know
our women's names will spoken like divinity
infinity multiplied like timetables
n turntable
I don't want to turn back
tables of time
and bring the old days of hip hop back
but move our people forward
till the only needles and cutting our children know
Are the needles cutting into the grooves of an lp at a dj show
and the violence will finally stop echoing
like shellshock bass from bombs in this Middle East L.A.
stretching from Watts to Iraq
and on that day
we of the darker melanin
will once again be,
like these hip hop streets
like these old school hip hop beats
creative, beautiful
and violence free

m.gonzales- Human Writes Project- Copyright 2007

i spit too much for you to swallow

Follow me home
better have a full tank, money for shoes
What you fools think
-Peedi Crakk, Freeway, Young Chris, Beanie Siegel, "One For"

Found myself reading about Philly's recent violence and drawing my own parallels between what's happening down (shouts to hot chocolatathoughts for the link) there with what's been going on in Boston (and around the country). They had 100 homicides before April. That is nuts. It's odd how if subconsciously we equate crime with reality. Contrasting similar situations serves to validate or null some arguments just because things may pale in comparison. A dozen murders in a month may see an outcry in the Bean, but it could be a typical weekend in the D. Somebody might say, "oh my." I said might.

I did find it ironic that former Philly City Councilor Michael Nutter is calling for Mayor Street to declare a state of emergency. My local heads will recall that Reverend Bruce Wall has been pushing for Mayor Menino to do the very same thing here (and Bob Donovan in Milwaukee). And to top it off, both of them are considering a run for mayor in the next election against the current incumbent. But I have found Wall's posturing to be more about himself in the grander scheme of things. I have seen his passion firsthand and wouldn't want to detract from that community activism, but even the whole notion of being mad because the police commissioner won't meet with him seemed absurd to me. Go where he'll be and say whattup, is the thought that came to me upon first hearing that nonsense.

Someone asked me not long ago when I was going to run for office. I laughed it off. They knew I was working on the homie's campaign and figured they'd put it out there. Not to mention my moms is nuts and she once left a rambling voice mail message saying something to the effect of, "you need to run for office and I'll do all the cooking until you get married." That lady is hilarious. I might have to post a stream of one of her messages. They are cult classics. Just not for the faint of heart though. So anyways, I've been messing with a few people's heads and no when asked that question, I respond by saying that i am going to run for mayor if no one steps up to oppose Menino in the next race. It'll be fun. I think I'm going to have to keep toying with that one for a little bit. Konichiwa, b!tches.

When it rains that's when they shower

all of the debate and commentary and the presidential race got me to thinking about this gem Wyclef dropped a while back. Simply beautiful.

Wyclef Jean, "If I Was President"

If I was President
I'd get elected on Friday
Assassinated on Saturday
Buried on Sunday
If I was president,
If I was president

An old man told me
Instead of spending
Billions on the war
We can use some of that money
In the ghetto
I know some so poor
When it rains that's when they shower
Screaming fight the power
That's when the vulture devours

If I was President
I'd get elected on Friday
Assassinated on Saturday
Buried on Sunday
If I was president,
If I was president,
If I was president,
If I was president

But the radio won't play this
They call it rebel music,
How can you refuse it?,
Children of Moses

If I was President
I'd get elected on Friday
Assassinated on Saturday
Buried on Sunday
If I was president,
If I was president,

Tell the children the truth, the truth
Christopher Columbus didn't discover America
Tell them the truth,
The truth, Yeah
Tell them about Marcus Garvey
Tell the children the truth, yeah
The Truth
Tell them about Martin Luther King
Tell them the truth
The truth
Tell them about JFK

If I was President,
If I was President
I'd get elected on Friday
Assassinated on Saturday
Buried on Sunday
If I was president,
If I was president