Buttafly is blogging about Music As Beauty..an excerpt from T. Semakula's upcoming book titled..The Food Stamp Bandit

Buttafly is blogging about Music As Beauty..an excerpt from T. Semakula's upcoming book titled..The Food Stamp Bandit

It’s beautiful…

There is still trash in the hood. Some folk argue that the barrage of empty soda two liter bottles, old dollar store advertisements,  pissed out diapers, wind worn plastic bags, and  abandoned fast food to-go boxes has stepped up over the years. Some hoods have become like encased urban islands, bordered by poverty, red lines, and wore out housing.

 These hoods are passed, swiftly, by suburban, non-city folk, who swear that there’s no beauty worth stopping for. Yet, there are times when you can hear the thump of a base speaker that was placed in the trunk of an old Impala, or you can hear the melodies of Mary J. Blige, flowing from a half open second floor window.

You can still hear the music. The volume is turned up, and it’s drowning out the things that we don’t want to hear, and covers up the things that we don’t want to see. Go ahead, turn the music up louder; it’s beautiful.

Buttafly is blogging about Music As Beauty..an excerpt from T. Semakula's upcoming book titled..The Food Stamp Bandit

Buttafly is blogging about Music As Beauty..an excerpt from T. Semakula's upcoming book titled..The Food Stamp Bandit

by T. Semakula

Hip Hop music became the cultural essays that were written inside project apartments. These essays were drafted on legal paper with blue ink. Hip Hop music beautified the complexity of hood intellect and caught the attention of educators and scholars.…While mainstream American media consistently portray urban youth of color from a stereotypical, deficit-based, and deleterious standpoint, these images run in startling contrast to portrayals in rap music. Rap music artists, instead, consistently document the neglect and abandonment of youth of color in America's devastated inner-city landscapes…

Buttafly's blogging about ..An Audacious Mind..an excerpt from T. Semakula's upcoming book titled..The Food Stamp Bandit

Buttafly's blogging about ..An Audacious Mind..an excerpt from T. Semakula's upcoming book titled..The Food Stamp Bandit

Those who lack audacity are mediocre, functional, average, cowardly and retarded in their thinking. Jesus is a perfect example of an audacious thinker. Jesus had the audacity to claim that he was the Son of God. He had the audacity to walk the earth, with his disciples, twelve deep, determined to deliver a message that was defined by hope and salvation. He had the audacity to be homeless, yet, all the while, knowing, that in his father’s house, there are many mansions.

Jesus was also an early proponent of utilizing critical thinking skills. He thought it barbaric to answer a question with an open ended response. He welcomed critical thinking with his numerous parables and made it clear that he had no tolerance for lazy minds. He approached simple folk with metaphors and challenged them to develop more strategic ways of applying the practicality of God’s word.

Kickin It Old Skool..an excerpt from T.Semakula's upcoming book titled "The Food Stamp Bandit"

Kickin It Old Skool

by T. Semakula

The eighties. Blue Adidas with fat white laces, Gazelles, and furry white Kangols. Members Only jackets and painted on Sergio Valente. Crack was roaming the hood like a crooked cop, taking out aunties, friends, and mamas. Hip Hop gave birth to a new canon that spit out stars such as Slick Rick, Dougie Fresh, and Special K.

Nowadays, the eighties are considered Old Skool. The folk that used to rule this decade have faded like the memory of Rodney King being slapped with the police batons. Let’s face it, before he died, the late Micheal Jackson was looking for a sponsor, Prince pushed past fifty, and sweet little Rudy, from the Cosby Show, kicked off her old persona, and portrayed a cracked out hooker in one of Tyler Perry’s blockbusters.