Kingdom Knock

When looking at the city of Detroit, it may not be New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, however, it is a formidable sight of gothic beauty and size that is hard to deny or overlook. The "D" was a place in times past especially during the struggle of African Americans during segregation, where one could look and find opportunity to get ahead. There was the auto industry which opened doors for African Americans to receive better salaries that could afford them a home, new car, better benefits, and maybe set aside College funds for their kids. In addition, this was the home of Motown: The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, and The Temptations. Gospel greats such as Della Reese, Reverend CL Franklin: who put sermons on record and had a renown ministry before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr; he also presented a young future Grammy Award winning artist and daughter by the name of Aretha Franklin; The Winans, Clark Sisters, Rance Allen Group, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Fred Hammond, J Moss, Byron Cage, and Thomas Whitfield to name a few. Dreams could be achieved in the "D"! However, what was going on behind the scenes was not observed or looked into and continued to spread. In 1961, Jerome Cavanagh defeated Louis C. Miriani for mayor of Detroit with the promise of giving African Americans the civil rights they deserved. Mayor Cavanagh would do this by increased government spending and government benefits in support of Detroit's black community. One way he would do this is by implementing the Model Cities program: turning a nine square mile section with 134,000 inhabitants into a Model City. The program was an element of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty. War on Poverty huh? The Model Cities initiative created a new program at the Department of Housing and Urban Development(HUD), with the intent of improving existing urban programs. Cities that received funding from this program and that are currently in trouble besides Detroit are Oakland, Newark and Camden. These are cities that have a history of violence and poverty but the Model Cities program was under the umbrella of...eh hem...War on Poverty. Really: sounds more like it created War and poverty! A new income tax and commuter tax was put on city workers to help finance the program. More than $400 million was spent on it! The government and Democratic officials were telling people where to live, build, and what businesses to open. People did not like being told what to do so the population declined. Throw in the Detroit Riots in 1967 that killed more than 40 people and left more than 5,000 homeless, then you have a whole city and economic environment unstable at best. With the Model Cities program not panning out, population leaving, and higher taxes...guess what these officials did: EXPANDED THE PROGRAM! In 1974, The Community Development Block Grant Program was created with the same model. The big 3 automakers were brought in to help fund this effort with a contribution of $488 million towards redevelopment and community improvement. What happened as a result of this expanded program, most of the upper and middle class citizens left Detroit along with some of the poor citizens. Vacant land in Detroit is currently the size of Boston. What was once a burgeoning industrial powerhouse has turned into a house of cards that recently filed for bankruptcy. This is not about politics, however, it is about voting the same people into position over and over again who created this atmosphere for failure with programs that were doomed from the beginning. It is about putting these people in position because of a traditional belief that this party or that party will be the ones to carry our wishes forward but if you know anything, you should know that I don't believe there has been a President, Governor, Mayor, or Congressman that has done everything they promised to do: whether Democrat or Republican! For the citizens of Detroit that did not or do not understand the programs that are enforced in their community, it is up to them to find the information on those programs, study, and understand what they are carrying out in their communities. Stansberry said, "When you start taxing people at extremely progressive rates to pay for socialist "benefits"...when you start telling them which schools their children must attend...when you start giving jobs away to people based on political patronage, race, or anything other than ability...you quash human freedom, you create dependency." I have been told by many that "Detroit will recover: they have been through similar things before. Furthermore, America will not allow them to totally fail". You think so? Well, Bear Stearns thought the same thing as did Lehman Brothers. What if America is not in a position to bring Detroit out of desolation? What if the dollar bubble burst like the dot com and real estate bubble burst? What if other cities with these similar types of programs continue to spiral downwards and our nation has to give some type of stimulus to rescue them as well? What if the stimulus bubble burst and there is no stimulus? If you continue to inflate a balloon past capacity it will eventually pop! Detroit is The Model City not just for the program, but a model for failed programs that never were replaced with programs that actually work. Detroit is the model city for other cities to observe what happens if failed programs such as The Model City program are never replaced.

It's January 2010, and my small sedan is packed with basketball players 6'4, 6,4, 6'7, 6'8, and 6'11, headed to basketball practice during my first stint as an assistant basketball coach. I polled the car to see who everybody's favorite rapper was. "Weezy", "Weezy", "Drake", "Lil Boosie". Needless to say I was not surprised with Lil Wayne or Drake. Lil Boosie threw me for a loop because the dude that named him was straight out of Jamaica lol. So I said, "aight cool". It was quiet for a split second, so I throw in Jay Electronica's "Victory Mixtape". My car rocked from all of the head nodding all the way to practice and back. This was the first time they had ever heard of Jay Elec and was surprised and thrown off by his skilled lyricism. Moreover, one of the kids was born and raised in the 3rd Ward in New Orleans so when he heard "the Magnolia Projects in the 3rd Ward slum..um", he about lost his mind. I had to calm him down because he was the 6'11 kid lol. I could not help thinking that Jay Electronica would bring back the lyrical aspect of Hip Hop that had been missing for almost a decade. I was like, "when Jay Elec drops his LP, it will force these emcees to spit something with substance". However, I waited, and waited, and waited with disappointment because the LP never came. Then I find out he signs with Roc-Nation, is involved with a Rothschild, and then I hear sparingly from him by way of a feature or two. I am one that is very aware of a window of opportunity, so I thought it may be lost forever in the realms of Hip Hop lyricism. Drake could not do it now Jay Elec could not do it though they were the ones in the best position to do so! Fast forward to the fall of 2011, and I am listening to Jango Music (Pandora’s alter-ego), which is where I also placed some of my singles, and I hear a song called "Growing Apart". This track immediately drew me in and I was like, "who is this"? It was some artist by the name of Kendrick Lamar. I loved what he did with "Growing Apart" so I said, "let me go further". I listened to "Ignorance Is Bliss", and "HOC" and at the conclusion of that, he was immediately my favorite artist on Jango! I would go on to listen to work off the "Section.80" album that he had out as well such as "ADHD", which encouraged me to purchase both "Overly Dedicated" and "Section.80".
In 2012, I was anticipating "Good Kid Mad City", and wanted to get an actual tangible CD. When I put it in I was not disappointed and from then on, in the back of my mind, Kendrick Lamar is the chosen one to bring balance to the force "so to speak". He will be the one to bring lyricism back into Hip Hop and make these current industry commercial rap arist step up lyrically or they would be lost in the fray. I listened to that CD every day for a month or more and then at least once or twice a week after that. I love it but some people did not get Kendrick and said that the CD was a disappointment: I thought it was ingenious! We still received sub-par rap music on the radio unfortunately and I thought to myself, oh well. K Dot gave it a shot and I can still look for him to give us some dope verses. "We Up" (50 Cent), "Push Thru" (Talib Kweli). Also, we got a jewel or two like Lupe Fiasco's "Food & Liquor 2". Then, in 2013, there began to be trembling in the culture. Kanye West would release "Yeezus" which lacked in so many areas I can't name. He can do much better than that though I am not a huge fan of his. During that same time J.Cole dropped "Born Sinner" and that album within itself would force rappers to have to step up lyrically and producers to produce better! It was and is an incredible work and I thought to myself: it's J. Cole: he will be the one to bring balance! Jay Z dropped "Magna Carter Holy Grail" but I was not too impressed with that effort. That effort paled in comparison to J Cole! Not even close! "Yeah...it looks like it's going to be J Cole...J Cole is the...". As soon as I became used to the fact that J Cole may be "The One", I begin to get emails about Big Sean's "Control" and how Kendrick just flipped the Hip Hop industry upside down. I listened and pondered...listened and pondered. Kendrick's verse was immaculate! I have come away thinking: "Kendrick is The One"! Ironically on that same track was an emcee whom I originally thought was the one, however, Kendrick's verse has caused all of the dialogue and rebuttals. Judging from the current responses and those that are sure to come, this will rekindle a fire in the Hip Hop community the likes that we have not seen since the East Coast/West Coast beef; or the Nas vs Jay Z beef. Peace & Love Bron

I hear Artists talk often about being self-sufficient in their area of artistic expression but rarely do I see the proper effort and investment being put into that self-sufficiency. Let me ask, do you have these bare necessities on deck right now: 1) Copies of your books, CDs, poetry, paintings, essays, etc. 2) At least an hour per day outside of work or school dedicated to your art 3) Business Cards (with information where #1 can be found or purchased) 4) A business plan (which is the most important) One of the ways to be financially stable is to have streams of income coming in. In addition, if you truly want to be self-sufficient in your work, it will take some investment (money) and sacrificed time on your part. How bad do you want it? If you truly want this, you have to make sure that you have done everything you could possibly do on your end in order to make it happen. There are some things that God has already instilled in you and you don’t have to pray for those. The gifts and the call of God are without repentance! God has already given you common sense and wisdom in certain things: you don’t have to pray and fast for that! It’s already present: you just have to be accountable and responsible for it. Like…you have not stopped to put gas in the car so the needle is pointing towards “E” (this did not happen by the way), but you are praying that the Lord helps you to make it home and to your surprise, the car stopped on the shoulder of the road. “God..how could you let this happen?” Huh? Smh…dude, you passed how many exits where you could have stopped to get gas? How many gas stations did you pass? In the two aforementioned questions, this may have occurred due to lack of gas money or being late to an engagement where there is not enough time to stop for gas. That's preparation, responsibility, and accountability. It just takes the discipline on your part to implement those things. That was somewhat off the subject but hopefully you catch my drift. I bet most of you pass at least 10 to 20 people per day that you have never seen before. How many of those people know what you do or what your art is? Every person you run into should know that you are a writer, painter, poet, actor, musician, vocalist, or emcee. How bad do you want it? There are a number of artist without as much talent as others, but their hustle has pushed them to the forefront. Printing up their own material; always up in people’s faces pushing their product, handing out cards, flyers to their next gig, always at the spots where there is a large clientele (parties, concerts, festivals, etc.). They can’t go anywhere in town and not be known by somebody. How bad do you want it? Bron