Big shout out to DJ Kuttin Kandi for always speaking up and reminding all of us our responsibility. What makes this letter so important is that as much as we in Hip Hop like to smash on the troubling aspects of mainstream and corporate backed Hip Hop, our so called progressiveness and 'us keeping it real' stop at the front door when it comes to women. Something is seriously amiss, we can turn on the BET awards as much as we like to criticize, and see MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Nicki Minaj and others hosting and performing and not see a cadre of women artists on the line up for a popular 'alternative' outlet like Rock the Bells. We all have to take a pause and ask ourselves some hard questions. Why and how is this happening?

April 19th marked the 15th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh. While many gathered on that day to commemorate that tragic event, the act and others like it, continue to shed light on a fundamental hypocrisy in American society. The hypocrisy in question is the refusal of the American public to apply the term “terrorist” to anyone other than Black or Middle Eastern, Islamic radicals.

Language is the tool we use to frame our thoughts and thought processes. Every time we use, or tolerate the use around us of the terms “illegal” and “illegal alien” we are allowing white American nationalists, white racists, to speak from our mouths. That can't lead to anyplace good.

There’s a lot of hoopla about singer/rapper  T-Pain hooking up with Fox News icon Sean Hannity and giving him and the Republicans a ringing endorsement. This action has drawn alot anger in Hip Hop circles with some calling T-Pain a sellout of a baffoon who allowed himself to get played. One popular columnist, Min Paul Scott suggested that Hip Hop fans treat T-Pain the same way country music fans treated the Dixie Chicks when they spoke out against George Bush  and the war.

While many of us have been focused on the hostilities associated with the Tea Party movement, we have forgotten that one of the more sinister forces at work showing disdain for people in Black and Brown communities are police. The people who we pay through our tax dollars to protect and serve seem to be on a rampage as of late and sadly getting away with it...

Malkia Cyrill is a long time advocate for media justice who has been making sure that communities of color get a fair shake both in access and how we are depicted in media... Right now she's been on the frontline fighting to keep Net Neutrality in place on the internet and not allow it to go away and placed in the hands of big companies like AT&T, Comcast and other telecom companies.

Dear Lil Wayne,

My friend brought over your mixtape , No Ceilings, the other day and I gave it a listen. I have to say I was impressed. You clearly are a talented rapper with an excellent ability to ride beats, clever wordplay and smart punchlines.

I been saying this for a minute after seeing friends and family lose jobs, have their 401ks jacked and not be able to get credit… That what is taking place seems like a deliberate well planned out attack… I called it an attempt from the rich and powerful to crush working Americans and get them back on the plantation begging for a job. With that would come all sorts of concessions including lower wages, less benefits and longer hours. I saw it as an economic enslavement

It’s said that politics creates strange bedfellows. I was reminded how true this can be when I traveled to D.C. in recent weeks to figure out why several advocacy groups and legislators with histories of advocating for minority interests are lining up with big telecom companies in opposition to the FCC’s efforts to pass “Net Neutrality” rules.

Sadly 2010 is off to a shakey start with the story of this horrific police beating of an young violinist Jordan Miles who just several months ago played for First Lady Michelle Obama… This comes on the heels of recent stats showing that in 2009 close to 70 people were shot and killed by police in Houston/Harris County in Texas. 20-30 were killed in LA County in California.. Sadly 2010 is off to a shakey start with the story of this horrific police beating of an young violinist Jordan Miles who just several months ago played for First Lady Michelle Obama… This comes on the heels of recent stats showing that in 2009 close to 70 people were shot and killed by police in Houston/Harris County in Texas. 20-30 were killed in LA County in California..

By now everyone has heard about the racial firestorm that has been brewing because of some remarks attributed to Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, in a new book called Game Change.

Are Muslim-only lines at airports next? The thought is offensive, disgusting, and blatantly unconstitutional. But it’s hardly far-fetched.

Three years before suspected Nigerian airline terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was hauled off a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit with a powder and liquid explosive device stuffed in his underwear

Posting up excerpts of acceptance speeches for the Nobel Peace Prize by both President Obama and Martin Luther King. The natural thing is to make comparisons and perhaps demand that Obama be more King-like especially as he is sending 30 thousand more troops to Afghanistan…

Dear President Obama,

Do you really want to be the new “war president”? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president.