Singer and actor Tyrese Gibson recently made headlines when he offered to pay a young man’s Morehouse College tuition; an act that was graciously accepted by 21-year-old Lorenzo Murphy, also known as the popular Instagram personality “Zo the Motivator.”
Gibson, who is coming off the heels of his own good news (his newest album is steadily climbing the charts) took to Instagram to explain the good deed, citing inspiration from famous radio host Tom Joyner’s foundation, which supports HBCU scholarships.
Posts tagged as “Compton”
The reviews so far have been great, Dr. Dre has already dropped his well-received companion album, and Variety.com predicts the F. Gary Gray-directed “Straight Outta Compton” is will open to over $40 million on box office receipts this weekend. Made on a $29 million budget, “Compton” is already looking like the sleeper hit of the summer.
According to thegrio.com, director Gray (“Friday”, “Set It Off”, “The Italian Job”) teamed up with remaining members of the historic west coast rap group, Ice Cube, DJ Yella, Dre and MC Ren, (Eazy-E died in 1995) to tell the ups and downs of their incredible story. The film, named for the title track on N.W.A.’s 1988 debut album, stars Ice Cube’s son, O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Ice Cube), as well as Jason Mitchell (Eazy-E), Corey Hawkins (Dr. Dre), Neil Brown Jr. (DJ Yella) and Aldis Hodge (MC Ren).
A large part of the appeal of the film that is reaching beyond the built-in fanbase of N.W.A. is the timeliness of the subject and subject matter in the wake of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland and continued revelations and exposés of nationwide police brutality and racism. While “F**k The Police” stirred controversy when initially released, today it can be heard as prescient protest.
When asked how N.W.A. would respond to the social commentary of today, Gray thinks the revolutionary rap group would respond to #BlackLivesMatter similarly to how they reacted to what they were experiencing nearly 30 years ago. “Probably the same way they did back then. They were pretty frustrated. They spoke their mind,” he said. “They were honest about it, and I think they would respond the same way. ‘Hey listen it’s time to change. It’s time for a change.’”
When it comes to hip-hop artists today, Gary, as well as Ice Cube, DJ Yella and O’Shea Jackson Jr., feel fellow Compton native Kendrick Lamar is truly influential and follows closely in the big footsteps that N.W.A. created.
“It’s hard to duplicate N.W.A., but I like what Kendrick Lamar is doing,” said Gary. “I like what J. Cole is doing. These guys are conscious, and at least I know Kendrick is from the streets of Compton and stuff like that, so they’re authentic. And I think a lot of that comes from the N.W.A. or at least era.”
Straight Outta Compton opens in theaters this Friday, August 14. Check out the trailer below:
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (follow @lakinhutcherson)
NEW YORK (AP) — Dr. Dre says he will donate royalties from his new album to the city of Compton for a new performing arts facility.
In an interview with Zane Lowe on Beats 1 Radio, Dre said he spoke to Compton Mayor Aja Brown about ways to give back to the city with the release of his first album in 16 years.
The rapper, whose real name is Andre Young, said Thursday he “decided to donate all of my artist royalties from the sale of this album to help fund a new performing arts and entertainment facility for the kids in Compton.”
“Compton: A Soundtrack by Dr. Dre,” inspired by the N.W.A. biopic “Straight Outta Compton” which opens Aug. 14, will be released Friday. Dre said he hopes “everybody appreciates all the hard work I put into this album.”
“I’m honored that Mr. Young has decided to make a significant investment in his community,” Brown said in a statement. “He clearly has a heart for Compton, especially our youth. I believe this performing arts center will provide a pathway for creative expression, exposure and training to the myriad of industries that support arts, entertainment and technology — while providing a much-needed safe haven for our youth.”
Brown added that the center would be a therapeutic outlet for youth suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Compton” can be streamed exclusively on Apple Music starting Friday. Dre called the album his “grand finale.”
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press via thegrio.com
Kendrick Lamar continues to rack up just as much critical acclaim as he has album sales – the latest praise coming from the senate floor of his home state.
On Monday, the 27-year-old Grammy Award-winner received the “Generational Icon” award from California’s State Senate. The Compton native was introduced by State Senator Isadore Hall III and was honored for his ongoing efforts to address issues affecting his community and recognized for the music he’s produced that reflects these concerns.
“Being from the city of Compton and knowing the parks that I played at in the neighborhoods, I’ve always thought of how great the opportunity would be to give back to my community off of what I do in music,” he said. “So in order to do that from a city all the way to a state standpoint and have these young kids look at me at some type of inspiration it’s really an honor.”
Watch video of Lamar receiving California State Senate 35 District’s Generational Icon Award below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0K1VmAkPV8&w=560&h=315]
article via eurweb.com
LOS ANGELES — Following the success of his major label debut, “good kid, m.A.A.d. city,” in 2012, Kendrick Lamar did not indulge in earthly luxuries. Instead, he got baptized.
That album was the story of his redemption, not just from street gangs through rapping but from a life of sin by embracing Jesus Christ. His long-awaited follow-up, “To Pimp a Butterfly” (TDE/Aftermath/Interscope), which was made available online Sunday night, ahead of a planned March 23 release, is about carrying the weight of that clarity: What happens when you speak out, spiritually and politically, and people actually start to listen? And what of the world you left behind?
Mr. Lamar, who grew up in Compton, Calif., had previously been saved as a teenager in the parking lot of a Food 4 Less, he said, when the grandmother of a friend approached him after a tragedy, asking if he had accepted God. “One of my homeboys got smoked,” Mr. Lamar recalled. “She had seen that we weren’t right in the head. That was her being an angel for us.”
Nearly a decade later, having found that fame and riches did not offer additional salvation, or happiness, he “wanted to take it to the next level — being underwater,” he said. “I felt like it was something I had to do.”
Whereas “good kid, m.A.A.d. city” zoomed in on a day in the old life of Mr. Lamar, a gifted but wayward high schooler in a neighborhood filled with death and temptation, “To Pimp a Butterfly” brings listeners up to his present day, from world tours to the B.E.T. Awards, and the separation he feels from his past. Rather than relief, his escape from Compton has brought only more opportunities for sin and self-doubt, an internal chaos reflected not only in Mr. Lamar’s intricate stories but also in vigorous jazz- and funk-inflected production that builds on the smoother West Coast sounds of his debut.
Starting next year, the Confederate flag will no longer be available for sale or on display at government agencies in California. Governor Jerry Brown has signed a new law that prohibits selling or displaying items that have the flag on it.The law was introduced by Democratic Assemblyman Isadore Hall of Compton after his mom saw a replica Confederate at the Capitol gift shop. As a person of color, Hall says the state should avoid promoting symbols of racism. The gift shop no longer displays or sells the item.
Since it applies only to formal actions of government officials, lawmakers say the new law doesn’t violate free speech. More than this, it is still allowed for the flag to be displayed for educational purposes, like in museums or books.
Taking effect in January, the law also does not apply to people who protest or enter state property.
article via thegrio.com
The embattled Los Angeles’ Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital is set to reopen in early 2015 according to hospital officials, giving residents in its surrounding community access to much needed care as well as job opportunities. The hospital originally opened in 1972 serving the African American and Latino community with various types of medical services until the year 2007. The “heaven sent” hospital as it is known to many members of the community was shut down due to high patient deaths, unqualified staff, hygiene issues, and medical scandals. The shut down resulted in the loss of hospital jobs and lack of nearby emergency rooms for the community.
According to the MLK Community hospital website, “The hospital is expected to serve 1.2 million residents from all over South Los Angeles including Compton, Inglewood, Watts-Willowbrook and Lynwood.”
Not only will the hospital create jobs for people in the community, but it will also provide more than 10 inpatient and outpatient services including but not limited to Anesthesiology, Cardiology-medical and diagnostic, Emergency medicine, Endocrinology and Gastroenterology. The new hospital will also have 131 beds, a 21-bed emergency department, a critical care unit, and labor and delivery services.
“We’re not done yet, we have a lot to do and we are going to do it,” said Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. “We are putting in the kind of services that meet the needs and the demands of that population.”
The hospital will take new measures to ensure and decrease hospital scandals, hygiene issues, and unqualified staff by hiring the highest quality staff and using modern day technology. The hospitals mission is to “provide compassionate, collaborate, quality care and improve the health of our community. Our vision is to be a leading model of innovation, collaboration and community health care.”
For more information visit: http://www.mlkcommunityhospital.org
article by Kimberlee Buck via lasentinel.net
Compton, Calif. has elected Aja Brown as its newest mayor. The 31-year-old urban planner beat former mayor Omar Bradley in a runoff mayoral election. She’s the youngest mayor in Compton’s history and is determined to make progress in the city. “I believe the people of Compton are ready for change,” she said after being elected in June. “They’ve spoken. Their voice has clearly been heard that they don’t want to go backward. They want to go forward.”
The University of Southern California alumna is not taking her new position lightly. Her top priorities include reducing crime, balancing the budget and improving Compton’s image. In a recent interview she addressed her priorities as follows:
“I think the City of Compton has suffered for quite some time from the lack of innovative policies, really collaborative efforts with the federal, state and regional elected officials and government agencies. Compton has been on an island fiscally so I look forward to really collaborating in order to move our visions forward: to go back to basics, to implement strategic plans, capital improvements plans that really lay out the infrastructure improvements in our community. My heart is really in building coalitions. The city of Compton has over 200 churches, 100 non-profits, small business communities and really large corporations and so we have an opportunity to really bridge the gap between those sectors and be able to provide a higher level of service to our residents.”
There is a particular sound to the R&B and hip-hop music coming out of Los Angeles right now, an approach stylistically distinctive from the current rhythms emanating from New York, Atlanta or Chicago. Despite predictions that the Internet would render moot such differences, a regionalism that in the past birthed and defined subgenres including cool jazz, surf rock, hard-core punk and gangsta rap is forging a new music that’s uniquely of this town.
Those wondering whether it’s still possible for a distinct sound to blossom in a region, far enough away from the tyranny of commercial strains, to create a surprising new time stamp, can look not only to Los Angeles but also to this weekend’s BET Festival at L.A. Live.
The festival couldn’t land at a better time. The roster for Saturday night’s Staples Center show includes the two most promising male voices to come out of Southern California in a few years: San Pedro-born Miguel and Compton-raised Kendrick Lamar, both of whom released excellent and commercially successful albums in 2012.
They’ll perform alongside rising Compton rapper Schoolboy Q (who, along with Lamar, Jay Rock and Ab-Soul, comprise the Black Hippy collective) and headliner Snoop Dogg, purveyor of the so-called G-funk sound. That particular vibe came to define the early ’90s work of Dr. Dre and N.W.A, Death Row Records and the artist formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg, born in South L.A. a quarter century ago. (North Carolina-raised J. Cole is also on the bill.)
The festival couldn’t land at a better time. The roster for Saturday night’s Staples Center show includes the two most promising male voices to come out of Southern California in a few years: San Pedro-born Miguel and Compton-raised Kendrick Lamar, both of whom released excellent and commercially successful albums in 2012.
They’ll perform alongside rising Compton rapper Schoolboy Q (who, along with Lamar, Jay Rock and Ab-Soul, comprise the Black Hippy collective) and headliner Snoop Dogg, purveyor of the so-called G-funk sound. That particular vibe came to define the early ’90s work of Dr. Dre and N.W.A, Death Row Records and the artist formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg, born in South L.A. a quarter century ago. (North Carolina-raised J. Cole is also on the bill.)