"A Message To My Brothas"

Like most throughout the city, and the country, my heart is still heavy after watching the video of Derrion Albert being beaten to death. What makes this situation worse is the fact that since it has happened, the violence in our communities hasn't slowed down one bit. It's so much that needs to be done, but it's hard to really pinpoint where one should start. As a hip-hop artist who is well indulged in the cultures (unofficial) 5th element (knowledge/being informed), I feel it is only right that I speak on this matter in the best way I know how, in song. I hope by doing this, I can provoke some you all to make a change in your respective communites. Because, I do realize that this piece of spoken word won't reach who it needs to online, so it is up to us to march forward. This has nothing to do with rap, because it's bigger than that. Inconjuction with my place of employment, I have been doing some work with the youth in the Roseland community, but we NEED more help. So, I invite anyone in the Chicago area who is genuinely down to making a change to e-mail me at Tha.Advakit@gmail.com. PEACE!

Be sure to check out the song/spoken word piece I did in regards to this below...

"A Message To My Brothas"

http://limelinx.com/files/2f02dd9d7a89b20b94e71a2219479d78

R.I.P. Robert "Yummy" Sandifer 3/12/1983 - 9/1/1994

Today, September 1st, marks the 15th anniversary of the death of Robert "Yummy" Sandifer. "Yummy" as he was affectionately called because of his love for sweets, was a young child, who died at 11, partly because he was a misguided youth without direction, who got caught up in the gang culture on the southside of Chicago. Yummy was gun downed by his fellow gang members because when he was instructed to kill a rival gang member, he failed to do so and killed an(other) innocent child, making his gang a target of the Chicago police force. Because of this, he was brutality gunned down in the area of Roseland. Unfortunately, although this happened 15 years ago, this trend has not stopped. Most from Chicago will tell you that they know a young man similar to Yummy now, or maybe they were that child. The sad reality in Chicago, and other inner cities, is that children grow up believing that your options are either, joining a gang, or playing basketball. And when most of our males, and children in general, lack guidance from their fathers, they are more likely to get caught up in what Lupe called "the cool." Even though I'm from the southside, I didn't learn about this story until about a year ago while I was browsing on FakeShoreDrive and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. I'm in grad school now, and when I get my teaching degree, my main goal is to go back into the city where I was born and help our children go down the right path and reach their full potential. Oh yeah, I wrote a song about Yummy too (something Tupac has also done), but really, I just want YOU to learn about him, whether you read the TIME article or check out my song. PEACE!

Read the TIME article HERE

Download/Listen to song: "Pour A Lil Liquor" by Tha Advakit

Special thanks to ALL the sites that have posted this story and my song:

FakeShoreDrive
TheHipHopUpdate
GoWhereHipHop
SoSnewty
DudeGotBars

Teen Girl Shot in the Head

I grew up about 2 miles south of where this occurred. Very sad. I need to find some more positive news to post, this stuff is depressing. Read below, from the Chicago Sun-Times:

A 15-year-old Chicago girl was shot in the head outside her Far South Side home Wednesday as she shielded a younger relative from gunfire.

The girl was in critical condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center after being shot about 8 pm. in the 11000 block of South Normal, officials said.

Police said there was an argument between the occupants of two vehicles when shots were fired. The girl was not the intended target, police said. It was unknown whether the vehicles were moving when shots were fired.

Claudia Lanfair, who lives near the victim, said she called police after hearing about five or six shots.

"At first, it sounded like a firecracker. There were too many coming too fast," she said. "I'm like, 'That's no firecracker.' "

She heard a cry from the girl's older sister and went to her window to see the girl lying on the ground, she said. "When I went to the window, her sister was screaming at the top of her lungs."

She said the girl is among the children who play with her 11-year-old son on the street.

Calumet Area detectives are investigating.

A Typical Day in America: Violence & Racism

Just a few disheartening news headlines I came across this morning. Again, I'm from Chicago, so more times than not, by news headlines will focus on things occurring in or around the city.

Chicago teen charged in "brutal slaying" of another teen:

The Southwest Side suspect confessed to dragging Alex into an alley and beating him in the head with a brick, police said. But the suspect said he did not shoot or burn the boy.

Three other people have been charged in connection with the death.

Officials have said Alex was walking with three girls to a friend's house in the 3000 block of West 54th Place when he was twice confronted by neighborhood gang members. The first group was on bikes and second rode in a Ford Mustang.

The gang members asked him "what he was about" and demanded he "throw up a crown" in support of the Latin Kings street gang, prosecutors have said.

But Alex resisted. He allegedly told the group he was about "nothing" and even lifted his shirt to prove he had no gang tattoos, authorities said.

Read the rest here...

Teen shot in neck while watching motorist argue:

A 15-year-old boy was hospitalized after suffering a gunshot wound that went through his back and lodged near his neck after an apparent road rage incident Wednesday night in the South Side’s Englewood neighborhood.

The boy was standing outside watching two motorists argue after they were involved in a “minor fender-bender” at 10:20 p.m. in the 6800 block of South Throop Street, police said.


Both drivers got out and started fighting with each other and one produced a gun and started shooting into the street -- not coming anywhere close to the motorist, but striking the boy in the back, according to police, who said the boy does not know the motorists.

Read the rest here...

Two female firefighters from Houston are victims of racism & sexism:

Just one day after discovering racist and sexist remarks drawn on the wall of Station 54, the two firefighters at the center of this scandal are breaking their silence.

"It's demented. Somebody is sick," said Houston Firefighter Jane Draycott.
Keys and Draycott claim the harassment has been going on for months; acts so low, they say, as defacing photographs of their family, even a deceased daughter.
"They wrote 'dead' on her face and they wrote 'die' on my face," said Draycott.
The women's attorney told us about the harassment he claims they endured during the months leading up to Tuesday's incident.

Attorney Joseph Amad said, "Ranging from turning the cold water off in the shower so they got scalded, from having firecrackers to go off when they opened the bathroom stall to taking the mattresses away from their beds."

Read the rest here...

In addition to this story, a captain at the same fire department, Keith Smith, reportedly kept a nooses in his locker. He later issued an apology claiming to have kept them there as a reminder of his training days and had no idea what they symbolized. Davey D (who I stole this article from, haha) made a good point in stating that the fact that Jena, La is only 6 hours away from Houston, so that makes it hard to believe he wasn't aware of that news story (which centered around the hanging of nooses). The coverage on the Jena 6 story (which was only 2 years ago) was constantly flooding the airwaves and newspapers, so unless he was living under a rock, he should have been notified of its symbolism then. Besides, who just keeps nooses around?!

Instances like this make you realize that although African Americans have played a large role in shaping American history their history is often overlooked. Although, I'm confident he knows what a noose symbolizes, the sad part is, a lot of people really don't know, whether young or old or black or white. Education regarding minority groups in the school system is certainly lacking, and this case is just further proof.

5 Shot At Chicago High School (Dunbar)

According to CBS News in Chicago:

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Chicago police say they believe a shooting Friday night at a South Side high school that sent at least five male victims to the hospital was gang-related.

Police say the shots came from a vehicle that pulled up outside the building as a basketball game was getting out. Chicago police superintendent Jody Weis called the shootings at Paul Laurence Dunbar Vocational Career Academy "a tragedy."

"A girl started screaming, and then we just starting hearing shots," eyewitness Robert McCallum said. "I was the first one to jump, jump on the ground because they started shooting ... Everybody piled up on top of me. It was crazy."

Chicago police say they have 200 officers in the area looking for the shooters, but no one has been identified or arrested. Authorities say they believe the shooting is an "isolated incident" and that the neighborhood is not in danger.

Of the shooting victims, three were in serious condition and two were in critical condition. They were taken to area hospitals with gunshot wounds. A sixth female was injured in the rush to flee the bullets.

Authorities say video cameras at the school could help police in their investigation.

The game, against Hope High School, was in triple overtime when the shooting happened, according to CPS boys basketball coordinator Cyrus McGinnis, who said no players were injured in the shooting.

The shooting happened outside and everyone ran back into the gym to avoid injury, McGinnis said.

Thank God no one died, but when will this senseless violence stop? Below I blogged about how police officers will willingly kill a black man, but we are no better as we exhibit the same type of behavior with the ignorance of "black on black crime". This certainly was not the fault of any police officer. I can't help but wonder when we will wake up realize that the behavior these gangs promote and are apart of does nothing but hinder our growth as a people, community and nation...