ResourceMag Publisher Imperial Media Design Creative Director Cory Austin Assistant Editor April Austin Promotions Tim Phillips Photographer Glare Photography Cover Photography Mark Henry
Distribution Director Tristan Austin Marketing Director Pala Casas Sales Manager Neimiah Lewis Subscription Cory Austin Graphic Designer Cory Austin Web Designer Imperial Media Design Writer Various Contributors Questions and feedback: 4140 Oceanside Blvd Suite # 319 Oceanside, Ca. Phone: (619) 866 4792 Fax: (619) 866 4792 Email: info@imperialhustle.com Online: www.imperialhustle.com
Publishers Note From an early age I wanted more than what was just handed to me and I think that speaks for many of us. I feel as we grow older some of our earliest desires become some of our largest fantasies, and things we once wanted no longer our reality. I look at my oldest son as he sleeps, and see a child that is imagining an unlimited amount of potential for himself. What happens from the time that we are young to the time we grow old, it becomes extraordinary in change. This takes place because we begin with a small feeling called doubt rather than desire. What separates us as Human Beings from all sentient beings on this planet is our ability to create, rather than just instinctively react. How often do we use the ability to bring forth something from within ourselves, let alone within our own mind? What you manifest is completely up to you, and the reality that we choose to create is our choice as well. Bottom line, if you want changes with in your life, you must change things within your life. Remember to dream, desire and take control. The universe will provide.
Cory Austin
editor&creative director
Content 04
The Money Game
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It takes more than Music
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The Prison Industrial Complex
In the matrix An outside look at our monetary feelings in the system.
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A look at how we preceive original art and music in our current platform.
The Capilization by American Corporations at each of our expense.
Musician Section 14
Babee Loc Interview
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Hard Head Article
The originator of West Coast Gangsta Reggae and Kokane’s new Artist Grind Hard new album discussed and new distribution deals.
Cover Story’s 20
BUD E Boy Entertainment
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Dame Mariatchi
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Indie Features
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The Legendary Kokane’s new record label with a diverse group of new artists.
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Unsigned Hype winner for The Resource Magazine. MRsonist, DMO and Figa 8 are the top Indie features for this issue.
OG Cuicide Bio
The Compton rapper known for his suicide outreach to the youth.
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Top Listed Producers
The Top producers Listed with the Resource Magazine. Their contacts available.
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Listings
ResourceMag
THE MONEY GAME IN THE MATRIX The money game continues to be the tool of measurement by which many determine their own value and worth as well as those of others. There are master players who are few and far between while the majority of the world struggles to figure out how to stay in the game if only as a pawn. Although master players such as those who reign at the helm of power through governing systems on the planet; they may appear on the opposite end of lack but it does not mean that they have bypassed the illusion of the monetary matrix. They are simply playing from another level of the monetary game. Have you ever visited Las Vegas or Atlantic City or any casino for that matter? What is not realized is that we have been playing the game of life in the biggest casino of them all. This currency aspect of reality is a stratum of the matrix in which everyone conforms to the illusion of money. We are told that money makes the world go round. This is true when interpreted as the force of energy, power or current. Money is ultimately an extension of our own thought projections and life force. It is our thoughts and our life force that is converted into this form of current (currency) whether viewed from the perspective of physical labor or from a projection of the mind or through strategic planning. Either way this current (your life force) streams from you!
How is reality a vast casino? Or one might say a cosmic casino. The world of commerce looks you in the eye and reminds you that without the required monetary increments you won’t be able to maintain the essentials for human survival which are food, clothes and shelter. Ones selection of food, clothes and shelter is however sliced into a number of possibilities each one determined by a specific monetary class. In the game ones quality of life is subject to your ability to strategize in life’s casino or at least so we are lead to believe. In order to begin to be more strategic in your game perhaps it is necessary to examine the casino and gambling elements of the game. Everything that we create outside of us such as the casinos for gambling is always a replication of a more obscure aspect of reality. Reality unfolds in levels of subtlety causing the obvious to be overridden by our aim to meet the demands of the game. We are diehard, addicted game players who do not realize that we embark on a daily gamble. The casino of the matrix has an assortment of games no different than the physical casinos. One chooses the kind of game or games you will play and how much you are willing to gamble. We spend our lives “hoping”, just as we do when we sit in front of a slot machine or at the blackjack table or watching for the winning numbers of the lottery ticket.
Sometimes the emotions injected into the first game for the day will spill over into all other games. At the end of the day you will have collected an assortment of emotional currency from each one of these experiences and this is what you take home with you.
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Jackpot As we pull the lever or roll the dice or select our lottery numbers we hope for the jackpot or for some level of winning that will solve certain deficiencies in our overall game. So it is with each of us in life’s casino. When we awake in the morning we awake ready to dive into the game despite any proclaimed resistance to it. We awaken into the casino hoping that today will be a good day at the slot machine or the craps table. We hope that we are not thrown any curve balls for the day. It’s all a gamble not being sure exactly how the day will pan out. Exactly how do we automatically journey into the casino upon waking in the mornings? In the mornings as we begin returning from the world of sleep most often you will find yourself already thinking and strategizing about the day’s events. The events of the day are your assortment of games that you will play. Each situation, each dilemma, each person, coworkers that you may not be happy with, a job that you hate going into or perhaps you may like going into, a lunch date scheduled for the day, does he or she like you, will you get the loan, relationships, bills to be paid, the party you are planning and the list goes on and on.
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Each one of these interactions will shape its own unique game. Throughout the day you may have five or more unique games. Sometimes the emotions injected into the first game for the day will spill over into all other games. At the end of the day you will have collected an assortment of emotional currency from each one of these experiences and this is what you take home with you. These are the payoffs from “today’s” game. At bedtime you lay in bed and you go over your payoffs for the day and you begin to strategize about your approach in the casino tomorrow and you do it all
ResourceMag over again each day. We believe that we are out working hard at making money but it’s not about the money it has always been about the payoffs. Money doesn’t exist in the first place what does exist are the experiences we associate with sustaining our money supply. Money is a current that responds according to the required payoff of the player. There are other factors at play which aid in sustaining the actual money program and our belief systems about money. We can examine the commercial system which regulates the operations of our world along with those who designed it. This is the wheel which ensures the illusionary, daily grind as we hustle our way to fulfill the requirements of the monetary matrix. The word hustle in this context refers to the strategies we incorporate in our game in order to fulfill the illusion of making money. Our general definition of street hustling is equal to the hustle established from the boardroom on down. We are all hustling! We are hustling for the payoff despite the stores we attach to our reasons. This is the thrill of life’s casino. Each time you roll the dice on a daily basis you hope and we become addicted to the rush that is felt from hoping, as you step up to play.
We have convinced ourselves that this is the only game in town and if we do not play it then we are doomed! What will we do! As a reminder we do not make money; for money represent a currency stream “Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but it can be transformed from one form to the other” There is NO money being made! The system already knows this but it is the rest of the programmed minds that are completely oblivious to this. We all have
walked this road; we have all been taken for a ride. What is important to recognize is that although we are speaking of money what lies at the core of this experience is how it all It’s not about what they relates to our existence. It is said that did although it helps to time is money and there is indeed understand the stratetruth to this. It’s all science. Neither gies that continue to time nor money really exists! Finding a way over this monetary hold our minds spell illusion is not about fighting the sysbound tem. One must go beyond the system worth and value. J.P. Morgan said through an elevation in conscious“If you have to ask how much it ness in order to transcend these procosts you can’t afford it.” Author Lex grams and perception boundaries. Lobe reminds us that “Morgan knew Our very language, emotions and refthat he had the ability to create erence points to money must change. money when needed. Money goes To understand that we measure our from something that does not exist life force in the same manner that we to something that does”. We are measure money is a powerful realthe currency that flows through all ization. We are mechanized in our facets of life. conclusions of money being scarce or plenty. This is based on a systemic programming of our perception in What the economy is or is not are reference to the world of commerce. only thought projections which We view money as something that impact the individual according to runs out and rightly so. We are conwhat their current story calls for. tinuously reminded of the economy There are a great many that are not and all things of commercial value as impacted by the so called economy. measured based on someone else’s We are dealing with digital proconditions. It is only natural that we jections. This is a psychological would be in fear of depletion as this game imposed by those privy to has been a long standing program. the money projector. Therefore The brain is trained to maintain focus our minds become entangled in a on the monetary codes of scarcity measurement assessment of cost. and plenty when measuring currency Cost is obviously associated with value. This is an amazing game withthe value we place on the purchase in which we have gotten or exchange being pondered. lost as it all seems so Where does our value sysbelievable which it is tem come from? Are you when submerged We have convinced operating based on in it. It’s not ourselves that this is the what truly resonates about what they only game in town and if with you or is it based did although it we do not play it then we on the value table helps to underprovided for us based stand the strateare doomed! on coded brands? gies that continue When we operate based to hold our minds on resonance scientificalspell bound to the ly the current should always concepts of money, be there to meet the desire. We can also examine what our desire
Money
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Creating New Reality
Money is not the evil thing here but rather acts as a catalyst. It supports each of our perceptions. Our deep rooted perceptions about money are only a reflection of the foundation upon which our individual games are being played.
based on their money and spirituality programs. There is no right or wrong or good or bad in the perception we choose. This journey is such an amazing experience as one is allowed to take on any character he or she wants to experience. Money is not the evil thing here but rather acts as a catalyst. It supports each of our perceptions. Our deep rooted perceptions about money are only a reflection of the foundation upon which our individual games are being played. It is the shape of our core story from which we live our lives. Money is a phantom and represents the current which flows from us. We are dealing with quantum states. An analogy can be drawn from the EPR Experiment of (2) Schrödinger’s Cat. It can certainly be applied to our observation and conclusions of what is or isn’t. The power of suggestion influences the mind of the observer establishing predetermined notions of that which is to be observed; in this case money. We can perhaps begin to take an honest look at our stories, our perceptions and the current methods of playing the game. Changing the game is therefore possible despite our addiction to the payoffs and when the payoffs no longer serve us only then will we embark on change in creating a new reality. By: Sonia Barrett www.spiritinform.com
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what our desire maybe associated with. This will also make a difference in how the currency unfolds to support the desire. There is an article that came out today February 11, 2011 titled (1) IMF calls for dollar alternative by Ben Rooney appearing on CNNMoney.com, this kind of information reminds us of the ability of the coordinators or money magicians to determine what money will be or not be. This becomes another program upload or program adjustment to your preexisting money program. This kind of upload takes very well and the people are non the wiser that there is no money only a suggested belief or perception. The abundance hype and law of attraction concepts had what we would refer to as “good” intensions. However there were always so many key ingredients missing that some either became more confused than when they started or they went to the other extreme of drowning in the hype. It all seemed to become just another cult like episode. There are also those in the “spiritual” community who have convinced themselves that staying in lack and asking for donations is a more “spiritual” approach. Here the table of measurement pops up to evaluate or place you on the spiritual scale. Just how spiritual are you, well let’s just measure that. This is based on the same principles of the concept of money that is programmed into to us. We are using the same method of currency measurement to measure spirituality. Everything is spiritual! Many of these people however feel guilt in expressing monetary value for their work or services clearly
ResourceMag
It takes More than MUSIC It’s less about winning than participating. This is difficult for baby boomers to understand, they grew up in an era where domination was key. But their progeny are all about being a member of the group. And one of the ways you demonstrate your membership is by making a parody video, a tribute video, a lip-synch video…that’s how you evidence ownership and inclusiveness. This is remix culture. It’s what rights holders have fought against for over a decade, believing it would dilute their copyrights. But it turns out that the best way to have a valuable copyright today is to allow the public to make it their own. That’s when you
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know you’ve got something valuable, when the public embraces it, twists it, bounces it off its brethren. This is a significant change from what came before. In the past, you were either a hero or a zero. Either the newscaster on TV or the nobody. But today, those newscasters are seen as bloviatFans will give you all their money, if you just let them believe they own you. Instead, hit artists are doing their best to keep fans at a distance. ing helmet-haired automatons and if you’ve got an opinion you don’t keep it to yourself, you express it on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. And your friends know all about it. Want to triumph in today’s culture? Dig very deep.
The Remix Culture
You’ve got to come down off your high horse and realize the only way to make a buck is not by selling tracks, never mind albums.
“No one takes seriously what’s on the radio, real truth is off the radio, just like real truth is never on TV news.”
high horse and realize the only way to make a buck is not by selling tracks, never mind albums. Fans will give you all their money, if you just let them believe they own you. Instead, hit artists are doing their best to keep fans at a distance. Flying private, hobnobbing with the rich and famous. Want to make a commotion? Fly public and tweet what flight you’re on. Tweet where you’re having dinner. Say you’ll pay for the first hundred fans who show up at In-N-Out. This money is better spent than radio promotion. Because you own the fan whose dinner you purchased, you don’t own anything on radio, if anything, they own you. Now it’s primarily about getting lucky. You’ve got no idea when you’re going to go viral, just like an act isn’t the best judge of what’s going to be a hit. You provide music and stems for years, just waiting for that lucky moment. Hell, Psy was on his sixth album already! You’re waiting for someone to discover your fish. Meanwhile, they’re not even aware of your pond. But if someone is, and you hand out free maps and a coupon for a free soda when people show up, you’ve got something. We’re all in it together. The sooner you realize this, the sooner you’re on the road to success. P.S. Music is already free. The dominant way teenagers listen is on YouTube. So stop arguing about Spotify payments, stop arguing about maintaining the album, embrace the new. Hell, if the majors had embraced Spotify two years earlier, kids would have cared, it would have burgeoned. Instead, they’ve become inured to YouTube.
Bob Lefsetz
Lefsetz Letter Publisher
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There was a fascinating article in Sunday’s “New York Times” stating that the mainstream reporters can no longer follow political campaigns, they’re not sophisticated enough. The candidates do such deep data mining that they target microgroups and ignore the mainstream. You may think what’s on TV counts, but really it’s what’s in the Hadassah newsletter. And it’s no different in entertainment. It’s what’s happening deep in the niche that defines not only today, but tomorrow. Look at movies… Either they’re blockbusters or stiffs, there’s nothing in between. Either they’re cultural touchstones or irrelevant. The movie business hasn’t figure this out yet. That either they have to be in the blockbuster or niche business, there’s nothing in between. Same thing in music. But when it gets interesting is when the niche flips and becomes the mainstream. That’s the story of “Gangnam Style.” Suddenly, the marginal, brought to life by parody and tribute videos and word of mouth, becomes mainstream. But don’t equate mainstream with lasting. Hell, one can argue the day you become mainstream is the day you die, then no one will forward your work anymore, you live in a viral dead zone. You’re in bed with your audience. Not only do you have to communicate with your minions, you have to give them the tools to spread the word. That’s why free music is so important. It allows your soldiers on the ground to build your career. If you think it’s all about being on the radio, you’re missing the point. No one takes seriously what’s on the radio, real truth is off the radio, just like real truth is never on TV news. You’ve got to come down off your
The Prison Industrial Complex: The Economics of Incarceration in the USA
America leads the world in prison beds – for every 100,000 Americans, 743 citizens sit behind bars. For anyone paying attention, there is no shortage of issues that fundamentally challenge the underpinning moral infrastructure of American society and the values it claims to uphold. Under the conceptual illusion of liberty, few things are more sobering than the amount of Americans who will spend the rest of their lives in an isolated correctional facility – ostensibly, being corrected. The United States of America has long held the highest incarceration rate in the world, far surpassing any other nation. For every 100,000 Americans, 743 citizens sit behind bars. Presently, the prison population in
America consists of more than six million people, a number exceeding the amount of prisoners held in the gulags of the former Soviet Union at any point in its history. While miserable statistics illustrate some measure of the on-going ethical calamity occurring in the detainment centers inside the land of the free, only a partial picture of the broader situation is painted. While the country faces an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, business is booming in other fields
– namely, the private prison industry. Like any other business, these institutions are run for the purpose of turning a profit. State and federal prisons are contracted out to private companies who are paid a fixed amount to house each prisoner per day. Their profits result from spending the minimum amount of state or federal funds on each inmate, only to pocket the remaining capital. For the corrections conglomerates of America, prosperity depends on housing the maximum numbers of inmates for the longest potential time – as inexpensively as possible. By allowing a profit-driven capitalist-enterprise model to operate over institutions that should rightfully be focused on rehabilitation, America has enthusiastically embraced a prison industrial complex. Under the promise of maintaining correctional facilities at a lower cost due to market competition, state and federal govern-
Federal custody increased 772% percent between 1970 and 2009... ment’s contract privately run companies to manage and staff prisons, even allowing the groups to design and construct facilities. The private prison industry is primarily led by two morally deficient entities, the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut Corrections Corporation). These companies amassed combined revenue of over $2.9 billion in 2010, not without situating themselves in the center of political influence. The number of people imprisoned under state and federal custody increased 772% percent between 1970 and 2009, largely due to the incredible influence private corporations wield against the American legal system. Because judicial leniency and sentencing reductions threaten the very business models of these private corporations, millions have been spent lobbying state officials and political candidates in an effort to influence harsher “zero tolerance” legislation and mandatory sentencing for many non-violent offenses. Political action committees assembled by private correctional corporations have lobbied over 3.3 million dollars to the political establishment since 2001. An annual report released by the CCA in 2010 reiterates the importance of influencing legislation: The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them. Legislation has been proposed in numerous jurisdictions that could lower minimum sentences for some non-violent crimes and make more inmates eligible for early release based on good behavior. Also, sentencing alternatives under consideration could put some offenders on probation with electronic monitoring who would otherwise be incarcerated. Similarly, reductions in crime rates or resources dedicated to prevent and enforce crime could lead to reductions in arrests, convictions and sentences requiring incarceration at correctional facilities.”
and elsewhere. Under its original name, the Wackenhut Corrections Corporation was synonymous for the sadistic abuse of prisoners in its facilities, resulting in the termination of several contracts in 1999. The political action committees assembled by private prison enterprises have also wielded incredible influence with respect to administering harsher immigration legislation. The number of illegal immigrants being incarcerated inside the United States is rising exponentially under Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency responsible for annually overseeing the imprisonment of 400,000 foreign nationals at the cost of over $1.9 billion on custody-related operations. The agency has come under heavy criticism for seeking to contract a 1,250bed immigration detention facility in Essex County, New Jersey to a private company that shares intimate ties to New Jersey’s Governor, Chris Christie. Given the private prison industry’s dependence on immigration-detention contracts, the huge contributions of the prison lobby towards drafting Arizona’s recrementitious immigration law SB 1070 are all but unexpected. While the administration of Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer is lined with former private prison lobbyists, its Department of
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Considering today’s private prison population is over 17 times larger than the figure two decades earlier, the malleability of the judicial system under corporate influence is clear. The Corrections Corporation of America is the first and largest private prison company in the US, cofounded in 1983 by Tom Beasley, former Chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party. The CCA entered the market and overtly exploited Beasley’s political connections in an attempt to exert control over the entire prison system of Tennessee. Today, the company operates over sixty-five facilities and owns contracts with the US Marshal Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Bureau of Prisons. The GEO Group operates 118 detention centers throughout the United States, South Africa, UK, Australia
Corrections budget has been raised by $10 million, while all other Arizona state agencies are subject to budget cuts in 2012’s fiscal year. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this obstinate moral predicament presents itself in the private contracting of prisoners and their role in assembling vast quantities of military and commercial equipment. While the United States plunges itself into each new manufactured conflict under a wide range of fraudulent pretences, it is interesting to note that all military helmets, ammunition belts, bulletproof vests, ID tags, uniforms, tents, bags and other equipment used by military occupation forces are produced by inmates in federal prisons across the US. Giant multinational conglomerates and weapons manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Corporation employ federal prison labor to cheaply assemble weapons components, only to sell them to the Pentagon at premium prices. At the lowest, Prisoners earn 17 cents an hour to assemble high-tech electronic components for guided missile systems needed to produce Patriot Advanced Capability 3 missiles and anti-tank projectiles. In the past, political mouthpieces of the United States have criticized countries such as China and North Korea for their role in exploiting prisoner labor to create commodity products such as women’s bras and artificial flowers for export. Evidently, outsourcing the construction of the military equipment responsible for innumerable civilian causalities to the prisons of America warrants no such criticism from the military industrial establishment. In utter derision toward the integrity of the common worker, prison inmates are exposed to toxic spent ammunition, depleted uranium dust and other chemicals when contracted to clean and reassemble tanks and military vehicles returned from combat. Prison laborers receive no union protection, benefits or health and safety protection when made to work in electronic recycling factories where inmates are regularly exposed to lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic. In addition to performing tasks that can result in detrimental illnesses, prison labor produces other military utilities such as night-vision goggles, body armor, radio and communication devices, components for battleship anti-aircraft guns, land mine sweepers and electro-optical equipment. While this abundant source of low-cost manpower fosters greater incentives for corporate stockholders to impose draco-
nian legislation on the majority of Americans who commit nonviolent offenses, it’s hard to imagine such an innately colossal contradiction to the nation’s official rhetoric, i.e. American values. Furthermore, prison labor is employed not only in the assembly of complex components used in F-15 fighter jets and Cobra helicopters, it also supplies 98% of the entire market for equipment assembly services, with similar statistics in regard to products such as paints, stoves, office furniture, headphones, and speakers. It is some twisted irony that large sections of the workforce in America’s alleged free-market are shackled in chains. Weapons manufactured in the isolation of America’s prisons are the source of an exploitative cycle, which leaves allied NATO member countries indebted to a multibillion-dollar weapons industry at the behest of the U.S. State Department and the Pentagon. Complete with its own trade exhibitions, mail-order catalogs and investment houses on Wall Street, the eminence of the private prison industry solidifies the on-going corrosion of American principles – principles that seem more abstract now, than the day they were written. Predictably, the potential profit of the prison labor boom has encouraged the foundations of US corporate society to move their production forces into American prisons. Conglomerates such as IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom’s, Revlon, Macy’s, Pierre Cardin, Victoria’s Secret, and Target have all begun mounting production operations in US prisons. Many of these Fortune 500 conglomerates are corporate members of civil society groups such as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). These think tanks are critical toward influencing American foreign policy. Under the guise of democracy promotion, these civil societies fund opposition movements and train dissent groups in countries around the world in the interest of pro-US regime change. With naked insincerity, the same companies that outsource the production of their products to American prisons simultaneously sponsor
civil societies that demanded the release of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest – an overly political effort in the ongoing attempts to install a compliant regime in that country. The concept of privatizing prisons to reduce expenses comes at great cost to the inmates detained, who are subjected to living in increasingly squalid conditions in jail cells across America. In 2007, the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) was sent to a West Texas juvenile prison run by GEO Group for the purpose of monitoring its quality standards. The monitors sent by the TYC were subsequently fired for failing to report the sordid conditions they witnessed in the facility while they awarded the GEO Group with an overall compliance score of nearly 100%. Independent auditors later visited the facility and discovered that inmates were forced to urinate or defecate in small containers due to a lack of toilets in some of the cells. The independent commission also noted in their list of reported findings that the facility racially segregated prisoners and disciplined Hispanics for speaking Spanish by denying their access to layers and medical treatment. It was later discovered that the TYC monitors were employed by the GEO Group. Troublingly, the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility (WGYCF) operated by the GEO Group in Mississippi has been subject to a class-action lawsuit after reports that staff members were complicit in
The first private prison models were introduced following the abolishment of slavery after the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865, which saw expansive prison farms replace slave plantations. Prisons of the day contracted groups of predominately African-American inmates to pick cotton and construct railroads principally in southern states such as Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. In 2012, there are more African-Americans engrossed in the criminal-justice system than any point during slavery. Throughout its history, the American prison system has shared little with the concept of rehabilitation. Like the postCivil War prison farms, today’s system functions to purport required labor, largely on a racially specific basis. African-Americans consist of 40% of the prison population and are incarcerated seven times more often than whites, despite the fact that African-Americans make up only 12% of the national population. Once released, former inmates are barred from voting in elections, denied educational opportunities and are legally discriminated against in their efforts to find employment and housing. Few can deny the targeting of underprivileged urban communities of color in America’s failed War on Drugs. This phenomenon can largely be contributed to the stipulations of its anti-drug legislation, which commanded maximum sentencing for possession of minute amounts of rock cocaine, a substance that floods poor innercity black communities. Unbeknown to the vast majority of Americans, the US government has been actively taking steps to modify the legal infrastructure of the country to allow for a dramatic expansion of the domestic prison system at the expense of civil rights. On December 31st, 2011, Barack Obama signed into law the National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA) H.R. 1540. Emulating the rouge military dictatorships the US Government has long condemned in its rhetoric, the NDAA introduces a vaguely worded legislation that allows for US citizens to be arbitrarily detained in military detention without due process – might they be predictably be deemed radical, con-
spiratorial or suspected of terrorism. In a climate of rising public discontent, the establishment media has steadfastly worked to blur the line between public activism and domestic extremism. In addition to the world’s largest network of prison facilities, over 800 located detainment camps exist in all regions of the United States with varying maximum capacities. Facing economic stagnation, many Americans have been detained in responder camps as a consequence of publically demonstrating in accordance with the Occupy Wall Street movement launched in New York City. Under the guise of protecting Americans from a largely contrived and abstract threat of fundamentalist violence, citizens have been denied the right of peaceful assembly and placed in detainment apparatuses, managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Documents have been released by the American Civil Liberties Union detailing thePentagon’s widespread monitoring of public demonstrations and the targeting of individual activists under threat of national security. Co-authored by Senator Joe Lieberman, the Enemy Expatriation Act (HR 3166) gives the US government the power to detain nationals and revoke their American citizenship under suspicion of behavior perceived as terrorism.
government and the private prison enterprise will grow increasingly more intimate in the current climate of prison industrial legislation. The partnership between the United States government and its corporate associates spans various industries however; they all seek the common pursuit of profit irrespective of the moral and ethical consequence – the human consequence. The increasing influence of the Prison Industrial Complex towards official legislation and economic undertakings signifies a reprehensible threat to basic human rights. Perhaps the issuance of government legislation that leads offenders into detainment for the benefit of private shareholders is the purest embodiment of fascism, as cited in Mussolini’s vision of a Corporate State. Perhaps we (this entire author included) fail to grasp the seriousness of these legislations and their implications on our lives. Written By: Nile Bowie of Global Research
This legislation becomes increasingly more dangerous as citizens can be labeled domestic extremists based on their constitutionally protected activism or personal political leanings. In January 2006, a contract to construct detention facilities for the Department of Homeland Security worth a maximum of $385 million was awarded to KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton. Following the signing of NDAA earlier in 2012, leaked documents reveal that KBR is now seeking to staff its detention centersand award contracts for services such as catering, temporary fencing and barricades, laundry and medical services, power generation, and refuse collection. It would be reasonable to assume that these facilities could be managed in partnership with private corporations such as the GEO Group or the CCA, as many federal and state penitentiaries privatize sections of their facilities to privately owned companies. Declassified US Army documents originally drafted in 1997 divulge the existence of inmate labor camps inside US military installations. It is all but unexpected that the relationship between the upper echelons of
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the beating and stabbing of a prisoner who consequently incurred permanent brain damage. The official compliant authored by the ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center also highlights cases where the administration turned a blind eye to brutal cases of rape and torture within the facility.
ResourceMag
INTERVIEW WITH Babee Loc The West Coast Best kept secret pioneer of West Coast Gangsta Reggae and now member of Kokane’s Bud E Boy Record Label. Defiance: Tell us a little bit about the man, the background, and the music he be putting out . Babee Loc, go ahead and tell the people how you get started. Where you originally come from man? Let ‘em know. Babee Loc: Originally I was born in Hawaii, and I moved from Hawaii back in the late 70s over here. We moved to the East Coast, moved to the Northview Heights projects out there in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Then we got a little older, know what I’m saying, and shot back out to the West with Pops. Been out here ever since puttin’ it down. Defiance: Now Babee Loc, the type of music you doing right now is definitely original. You can’t say that there’s any West Coast artists out here right now who are doing something like that. So how did you get started in the type of music you did, the influences and everything, just go ahead and shoot us the whole nine with that. Babee Loc: The music thing, that just run in the family -- my mama, my sister, my brother Slim, we be rapping, doing that stuff since we was kids. I always fell up under his limelight cause I’m the little brother, know what I mean? And I always loved reggae music, that was just my shit. I got in trouble a lot as a kid, so I had to get up outta here and had to go move to Florida with Pops. Then the only cats in Florida that was like the gangbangers that I knew in California was the Jamaicans, so I used to kick it with the Jamai-
cans over there in Little Vietnam over in Florida. Then they used to be spittin’ out rhymes on me, but I didn’t understand what the hell they were sayin’. So my partner was like, “Man, I ain’t fuckin’ tellin’ you shit, you’re just gonna have to listen and learn.” So I did what I did with the OGs out here -- I sat back and shut up and listened, started pickin’ up on the lingo. You know, I already loved reggae music but I wasn’t gonna rap because my brother was already a rapper, and that niggaz good! So I wasn’t going to go and be in the limelight like that, so I started doing just reggae only, and it just stuck. That’s where I came up with that gangster West Coast thing. Defiance: That real shit, man! So you’re out in Florida, and for people who don’t know, they got a lotta Cubans, they got a lotta Jamaicans, Haitians, the whole melting pot for a lotta those West Indians. So that’s what he’s talking about fuckin’ Florida like that. But when you came back out here on the west coast, did you come back to Oceanside after that? Babee Loc: Yeah, I be comin’ back home, man. Can’t stay gone too long. Defiance: So would you say people was right away real receptive to the style? Babee Loc: They was receptive of it cause they knew who a nigga was, but it was different, so they were like, how the fuck you know how to do that shit? So it was really like a shock, like, “Okay,
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that shit’s kinda cool.” Then a nigga, you know, refined his craft, and was like doin’ it and doin’ it, and they got a little good at it. Then everybody was trippin’ like, “Damn, okay!” But I wasn’t serious about it. All the homies around the O wanted to get me on some tracks and shit, but I was like, alright, I’ll do it, but I wasn’t putting my all into it. But they was receptive, like, “Damn, that shit’s kinda hard.” So once I built my own confidence up and started thinking I could do it my damn self, that’s when I went ahead and eventually got solid with it and took off with it. Defiance: So what out here happened to be the game changer to really throw
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“so that’s when we did the Bangola record, with me and Kokane and my brother Slim. After that, Koke just extended his hand.”
Babee Loc: Well first I did a record back in ‘95, but that whole little industry shit they fucked me out of my money and all that, so I left the music alone. But then my brother got locked up five years ago. Some rat-ass niggas ratted him out, so cuz gotta gang of time. He was fixing to take off with his music career, so when my big brother got locked, I wanted to keep cuz name relevant, so I said I’m gonna go ahead and do my music thing, try to get a couple records with him on them and keep his name out there till he get out, cause that’s what he really wanted. So that was the thing that initially made me get serious about the music,
was my brother getting locked up. That was his dream of what he wanted to do, so I’m just trying to ride this out. When he get out if he still wanna do this, I’m gonna have that for him, know what I mean? That’s what initially made me get it crackin’. Defiance Right now you’ve got your own little entertainment company and clothing company, too. How did Bangola come up into the mix with you doing the reggae, doing the music, and now you comin’ with that? Babee Loc: Well originally, you know, all this West Coast gang shit, originally my record label and everything was called
for the first seven years of me and Koke’s relationship, we wasn’t on no music. It was on some uplifting shit. 15
your career into full throttle?
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Sidewalk Chalk. But once I started thinking business, I was like, that’s not broad enough. I be limited to just this hood shit. So I change it up and the first record that me and my brother ever got on I titled it “Bangola.” In California we like to play with words, you know, so me and my brother we change little words up, flip it upside and make “Bangola.” And that’s the first track me and my brother ever got on. He been rapping for years and I been doing my own thing, but that’s the first time we came together. So when this happens to my brother, I’m like, okay, the record’s called “Bangola,” I’m gonna name the album “Bangola.” I always wanted to do my clothing line, so boom, that’s how we came up with the Bangola music group and the Bangola clothing. Because of my big brother, pretty much. Defiance: So right now, what a lotta people they don’t know that you probably one of the newest artists that came along with the legendary music pioneer here on the west coast known as Kokane. Right now for you who don’t know it, you watching a very first exclusive interview with Babee Loc right before he even blow in’ the game, and now he’s fucking with Kokane. Tell us how that whole thing even came about.
Babee Loc: First off, I met Koke through my little homeboy, Rain, he another O’side rapper I known for years. I met Koke at his house when they was doing an album back in the day, this was about eight years ago. From that day, me and Koke clicked. I spit a little something just on some hum bug, and Koke was like, “That shit go, homie you should pursue
In California we like to play with words, you know, so me and my brother we change little words up, flip it upside and make “Bangola.”
that.” So for the first seven years of me and Koke’s relationship, we wasn’t on no music. It was on some uplifting shit. I was going through some hard times, Koke went through some hard times. It was saying, “god bless you,” “everything good with you,” you know? Well I just decided last year, 2011, I said fuck it. I’m gonna get serious with this music. So I called Koke
and was like, homie, I’m serious with my music now, man, so I want you to do a record with me. He was like, “well, when you get back to California,” cause I was gone for a couple of months, “hit me up.” Cuz stay true to his word, I hit him up and we did that first record together. Right after we did that first record, he was like, “Babee Loc, we gotta keep crackin’. Let’s get another one.” I had my own shit then, so that’s when we did the Bangola record, with me and Kokane and my brother Slim. After that, Koke just extended his hand like, “Check this out, homie. I’m gonna extend my hand to you, do this Bud E Boy Entertainment project.” That’s his record label. I ain’t no dummy, so I was like, “Shit, Kokane? One of the West Coast originals? Aw cuz, I’m on that. Don’t even worry about it. What’s happenin’? Let’s get it crackin’.” Ever since then, homie we been doing it. And he been lacen my Chucks till the ankles swell up, homie. Who else better to come up under than Kokane? Shit, Easy-E brought him out. They pioneers of the West Coast, with Ice-T and them they made all this happen. Defiance Yeah, he was under Ruthless, right? Kokane was? Babee Loc: Yeah. With the G-homies,
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know what I’m sayin? That’s all they era back then. If it wasn’t for them, man, this shit wouldn’t crack off the way it is.
(Interview Forwarded) DEFIANCE - Right now you have a lot of Indie Artists trying to get in the game; a lot of artist doing renditions of what is already out there. From your perspective now, coming under a label from someone doing his thing as big as Kokane, what would you say are some of the things some of these Indie Artists can do to gain more leverage in trying to get in the game?
DEFIANCE – Like you said, you’ve been doing this for a long time; taking it back to the mid 90s, 95…94…now for you doing your thing here in 2012, what do you see has been some of the biggest changes in this game? BABEE LOC – Good or bad?
DEFIANCE – Either way, how do you see it? BABEE LOC – Well you know I don’t knock anyone’s hustle, like the skinny jean wearers, I don’t knock anyone’s hustle because they’re different. They did what they did and people followed that, but they were the first ones to do it. The game changes a lot, but shit still remains the same. It’s still music. DEFIANCE – Do you think the internet has played a big part? BABEE LOC – Oh yea, everything’s viral now. You can reach broader audiences now. You can put a record on YouTube and it’ll reach Japan tomorrow. Before you’d have to ship records out and do all kinds of networking with everybody. Now you just put that shit up on Twitter or Facebook and your friend hit that and they friend hit that and then that shit is in Australia somewhere. So the internet is playing a big role. That’s pretty much the way to go really, that’s what I say. I like to control my own business; I like to be my own CEO. That way I can do what I want to do, how I want to do it. Make it work. DEFIANCE – How important do you think it is for an artist to get an internet presence along with still being able to give people something in the street? BABEE LOC - You gotta be able to balance both, you can’t have one without the other. You have to advance with time. So back in the day it was tape decks out the trunk, then it went to cds, and now everything is on the internet so we aint doing tape decks no more but we still got the cds pushing on the block. We still got the real hustlers that are getting the transformation from dope to cd’s. You’ll see em out there with a trunk full of cd’s and shirts and everything and just getting they hustle on, and still doing it on the web with the website; they coincide.
Dont miss out! Get the Full Babee Loc Interview online with Defiance at: http://www. youtube.com/ watch?v=i1F9piH_ sYA Support The EP Element of Surprise
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BABEE LOC - First off I would tell them to just ‘be you’, don’t try and be anybody else because they’ve already did it. Just be you, and different is good. New is good. Nobody was doing it on the West Coast until Eazy and them did it. It was new. We followed that, Kokane, has droped some of the hardest hooks in the world. Cant nobody do it like Kokane do, and that’s what you want. You wanna be somebody that cant nobody be, but try and emulate. Like me, I mean I’m not the best nigga out there, but I’m the best at what I do because it’s what I do. I got that West Coast gangsta reggae, that’s what I call it. Cant nobody do it like I do it cus I’m the one that did it. There are a lot of Reggae artists out there, but I’m me...be you. Do something different, different is good. Set yourself apart from everyone else.
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Hard Head
West Coast Hip Hop Artist Hard Head Announces New Record Label in conjunction with Laurie-Lynn Soares Management. mix of gangsta rap, R&B, funk and pop. Hard Head lists his personal influences and mentors as Tupac, 50 Cent, Marvin Gaye, Ice Cube, Stevie Wonder, Snoop Dogg, Kid Rock, the Black Eye Peas and Dr. Dre, as well as many others. Think of authentic west coast hip hop and funk when listening to artists on the Hard Head Production label and the “Grind Hard” album. After all, the west coast is among Hard Head’s strongest influences, as was the hard life of growing up in the streets of South Central LA. This gives life for the gangsta rap influences to be heard in every beat.
San Bernardino, CA, 2012 Rapper and hip hop artist Hard Head has launched a new label, called Hard Head Productions, based out of San Bernardino, California, located about 45 minutes away from the outskirts of LA County, in the Inland Empire. The announcement of Hard Head Productions follows the release of his highly anticipated Album “Grind Hard” during summer 2012. Laurie-Lynn Soares Management, for the last 2 years has managed and partnered with Hard Head Productions for a variety of projects. Laurie-Lynn Soares Management and Hard Head Productions signed a distribution deal with Snoop Dogg’s GG Worldwide/Empire Distribution, which has lead Hard Head Productions to manage and distribute music of other artists.
“Grind Hard” the album includes collaboration with artists such as Kurupt, K9 Compton, Kokane, Deacon of the Chuuch, SoopaFly, Bg Knocc Out, Big2daboy and others. Hard Head has also worked with Boom Bam, 40 Glocc, MC Eiht, Crooked I, Glasses Malone, and more and had signed Dr. Dre’s son as the first artist to the label under the name Hood Surgeon. For those who want the old school gangsta rap styles of Kokane, Snoop Dogg and Tupac from the West Coast Gangsta Rap Family, Hard Head Productions and “Grind Hard” answers the call. Originally born Da’Shon Jeter in South Central LA, Hard Head was shot seven times as a teenager, forcing him to look to a higher power and make an effort to look beyond life on the streets. Now his music incorporates a
The music from “Grind Hard” is gaining popularity on such online radio stations as ARTISTPR.com, MySpace.com, Jangoradio.com, XRadio.biz, Leftsideradio.com, Leftside.fr and Smoothradio.biz. In addition, the Sutton Music Group on the East Coast has been playing the hits of Hard Head, creating a cult following that is spreading across the West Coast as well. Fans say that the music echoes the realness that they recall from west coast music, reflecting the sounds of real gangsta rap. Even East Coast fans can’t help but appreciate the LA sound that Hard Head has to offer. Hard Head’s gangsta rap with real influences, brings fans back to something they relate . The South Central sound is impossible to miss and even harder to resist. Next time you want authentic west coast Gangsta rap, think of Hard Head.
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For more info visit: www.myspace.com/hardheadproduction hardheadproductions@hotmail.com
ResourceMag
BUD E BOY Entertainme Bud E Boy Entertainment is an Independent Record Label founded by Jerry B. Long aka Kokane & Mr. E aka Erik Ramos. Bud E Boy is ran by a team of hard working heavy weights in the music industry. Bud E Boy vows to bring you entertainment at its best, taking a team of talented artist on a rise to grow “Worldwide� with complexity and diversity from multiple genres!
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Aanisah C Long
GD Da Beast
FLOJOE
“Bud E Boy Entertainment is the independent record label that was founded by Kokane and Erik Ramos.“
Babee Loc 21
ent
DJ King Assassin
ResourceMag
BUD E BOY Entertainment
Bud E Boy Entertainment is the independent record label that was founded by Kokane and Erik Ramos. Bud E Boy is home to many new upcoming artists, and some known names as well within the music industry. Bud E Boy focuses on a wide variety of Genre’s and is at the forefront of bringing new talent to the top. We would like to give a brief overview of some of the artists that are on the Bud E Boy label. We will start with Aanisah C. Long who is a singer/songwriter & inspiring actress, Aanisah is currently involved with the World Vision Clean Water Project {Leon Mclaughlin} & {Paula Boggs “President Of Starbucks Coffee”} Bringing Clean Water To The World. She is one of the youngest spokesperson for the project. She is also working on her album “My Best Has Yet To Come” with Platinum producer’s Meech Wells &J Wells also David Williams, Traffik, Ishan & Jay Bellamy who produced her first single “Grew Apart” ft. Cavell. Artist formely known as Gorilla Doggg, Now GD Da Beast Boy, signed to his cousin Kokane’s
label Bud E Boy ENT, (GD) has worked with and did song’s with numerous artist such as Kokane,40 Glocc, D-Dimes from Hustle Boyz, Glasses malone, Goldie Loc and Tray Dee of the East Sidaz, Bad Azz, Suga Free, Young Giant’s, Turf Talk, D3 the Rocstar, Big 2 Da Boy, Tiny Kurupt from G-hood, Sevin and many more. He is also a group member of the Young Hyeenaz who’s album dropped in 2008 under YHMG (Young Hyeenaz Music Group) distributed by Warner Music Group. GD is on the rise with a new electric sound of his own and to mix it with the Funk Lord (Kokane’s) Funktorious style he will be a success. Now we come to FLOJOE” who was born & raised in Los Angeles, California. Inspired by the lost of her twin brother her approach to music is simple, “nothing to loose.” FLOJOE has recorded songs with doggy style recording artist Tray Deee, former hoobangin’ records artist Squeak Ru, Big Syke of 2pac’s group Outlawz, and Brick Squad Monopoly recording artist Joe Moses. With the March 2012 release of her first solo mixtape
“Bitch Wita Attitude Vol.1” FLOJOE has been opening up for many major industry artists. After 12 years of producing for Westcoast platinum royalty including the late Tupac Shakur and being one of the first West Coast producers in 1993 to produce for Def Jam/ West. Dj King has established himself as a respected music producer DJ and Hosting MC. He reached his debut on billboard at #28 on www.billboard.com under the most known DJ of all social networks with networks. Dj King Assassin currently holds the number one ranking chart on reverbnation nationally under the music genre DJ in Los Angeles and has his own radio show which is syndicated on many FM stations across the globe including WDRP 94.5 FM, Hot 107.9, KKDE 93.9 along with over 120 online stations and featured blogs globally with an online TV station on 98.2 The Beat and Mixshowblast TV.
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Kokane, also known as Jerry B. Long, Jr. is considered to be “The Most Featured Artist In The World”, he is a rapper from Pomona, California best known for being signed & co-writing for Eazy E’s “Ruthless Records” label, for his co-appearances on Dr. Dre’s album 2001, the work on G-funk album Funk Upon A Rhyme and his heavy collaboration with Snoop Dogg on the Tha Last Meal album & eventually signing to Snoop’s “Dogghouse” record label, bringing a renewed sense of promise to Kokane’s longrunning career. He is the son of Motown composer “Jerry Long, Sr.”He started his career at Eazy-E’s Ruthless Records, co-writing songs for N.W.A and Above the Law. He released his first solo album under the name “Who Am I?”. He signed with Koch Records, forming a new group, The Hood Mob, led by him, joined by Cricet and Contraband. Though Kokane had been involved with the West Coast rap scene since the dawn of gangsta rap, Kokane’s life has always included music, though it is the old school funk of the 1970s that most influences his style. His eccentric vocal approach is half fluid rapping and half weird P-funk-influenced singing. Kokane has worked with artists such as Above The Law, N.W.A., Eazy-E, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Tha Eastsidaz, Cypress Hill, E-40, Nipsey Hussle, P Diddy, Busta Rhymes, among others. Currently Jerry B. Long aka Kokane (Owner/CEO) has his own independent record label called Bud E Boy Entertainment distribution through IODA/SONY a (full service record label), along with his wife Alicia Long (Vice President) & Mr. E (CEO). Bud E Boy Entertainment staff also includes: Arnold White(A&R/Management/Marketing), DJ King Assassin (A&R/Marketing), Najee Long “Nafro Pro” (Art & Design) and Rick Ross (Production/ Art/Design).
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Kokane
ResourceMag
Dame Mariatchi The midwest has always been known for its summer heat wave, this time it burned in with Dame Mariatchi. The Resource magazine Unsigned Hype.
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Unsigned Hype winner Detroit based rapper, made a unanimous victory in the recent Unsigned Hype contest held by The Resource Magazine. 4 artists each paired against one another, with Dame pulling a 2000 vote lead over the competition to earn himself a Featured Spot in the Fall issue of The Resource Magazine. Dame had been previously signed to a label locally in Detroit and had released two mixtapes, “Married the Mixtape” (2009) and “Since Sliced Bread” (2011). Dame has shown us on his release to his single “If You Hear Me” a style that is descriptive poetry, with rapid delivery, the content had shown a respect to the art form in itself. In the future we will be discussing Dames background, projects that he is working on, his outlook on the game and where he’s looking to go next. Dame anticipates the release of his freshman album “Bibles and Bodegas” late 2012. After winning The Unsigned Hype Contest with The Resource Magazine, C&G Records, (owned by Founder Darnell Price of One West Clothing) offered Dame a distribution deal for his winnings and the release of his Freshman Album. Dame has shown that his work effort to win is worthy of major success, and he can turn what seems to be a small ripple, into an unstoppable ocean wave. Born Damon Biddle Detroit Michigan’s unsigned hip-hop artist Dame Mariatchi is a rapper and producer. At a young age he had dreams of being an artist later to find music his calling. Signed out of High school to an Indie Label from Detroit. He quickly learned not only how to come correct on the mic but also the intricate workings of the studio. He’s now focusing on his first album Bibles and Bodegas set to be released in late 2012. He has recently dropped the first track off the album entitled “Ifyouhearme” showcasing his lyrical fluidity and beefy baselines. And also “Sam&Dame” the no hook soulful track that has been called the one man talent show. His Midwest style has been said to have hints of spoken word and both New York and Southern influence.
Cory Austin
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Publisher/Writer
ResourceMag
Unsigned HYpe new artist This section is for independent artists that are working and administrating everything in place for professional careers. They have not been picked up by a Major label as of yet, but have the potential of continuing a career so well independently, they may not need to.
Crescent Divito
Dj Vice
Tayo Studio Geek
Our Unsigned Hype second runner up with 428 votes, Cresent has FREE ROYALTY SERIES MIXTAPES #MixtapeHustle!! Top Of The Morning Grind: http://www.mixconnect.com/ listen/Royalty2-mid7954
Well known Dj for the Jamaica area (Montego Bay) any artist or promoters booking events in JA. Check him out at Margaritaville or Blu Beat where he plays regularly.
The Elegant Hoodness Independent Artist and Hot97 Contest winner, Tayo Young out of Long Island, check his music.
@CrescentSODMG
@iamdjvice
@tayostudiogeek
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Tjuan Benafactor
Recent Nominee and winner of The Elegant Hoodness Miami. Independent Rapper/Producer from Hollywood/Miami Florida. Debut Mixtape Half A Zip.
Tjuan’s a national recording artist been on the grind since 2006. currently signed to his own imprint Arucca Flyboy and distributed through Island Defjam
@iamronasty
@tjuanbenafactor http://Tbenafactor.com
Chris Ness
Dirk Dilenga
Chriss Ness, winner of the Imperial hustle Twitter Spitter contest, with the best voted video. Chris has dropped a few consecutive albums, check him out at:
Dirk Dilenga was one of the first artists picked up by Young Freeway Nation, a promotion company that is a branch of Freeway Rick Ross’s Freeway Enterprise. To check out Dirk Dilengas new projects go to:
@Chris_Ness
@dirkdilengadumy
Cuzzo Sosay The Elegant Hoodeness Independent MUSIC PRODUCER / ARTIST / SONGWRITER / A & R MAN OF MANY TALENTS -@CUZZOSOSAY
C band da Chemist Born and Raised as native to San Diego, C- Band formally known as Contraband is an artist representing the Dsaygo area. To connect with Cband go to: @CBandDaChemist
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Ro Nasty
ResourceMag
Indie features
M$Rsonist
DMO
Figa 8
M$Rsonist Releases ‘CHECKMATE’ and Signs Distribution with Imperial Hustle Entertainment an album of his personal best and the next step of progression for his eclectic hip-hop sound. M$R Productions gained a major distribution deal with Empire and Imperial Hustle and will be distributing ‘CHECKMATE’ at all worldwide major music stores & digital retailers such as itunes, amazon, mp3, zune, muve, rhapsody, and more. Physical printed collectors CD’s with custom artwork are only available through www.tbanksakamr.com.
San Diego, California: Indie Artist Dwayne Hines, better known by his alias Dmo is No stranger to the game, 24 year old Dmo has been doing music since the age of 15. Dmo released his first studio album presented on ITunes entitled “Local Celebrity.” opening up for major artist such as Nipsey Hussle, Young Buck, Trina, and many other artists to spread locally as he began to grow as an artist. Recently DMO has released the album Emotions that has an original sound that draws the listener into a series of raw tracks that speaks directly from DMO’s inner self.
Inland Empire based artists that has made an impression with in the county down to San Diego. Known for his lyrical diversity and freestyle talent, we discovered Figure a while back, and decided that we were interested in letting the world know that he is out there. He has dropped the album “The Good, The Bad, and The inBetween” which is available on iTunes. Figa will now be working on his sophomore album. Check out his exclusive freestyle and mini interview for The Resource Magazine on imperialhustle. com. Follow him at:
@T_Banks_aka_MR
@ThisIsDmo
@figa8thetruth
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DJ Far
OG Cuicide
DJ Far: Passion for music so strong that from June of 2011 to present used 4 different retirement plans from past employers to fund my music and to pursue my music career. Now currently homeless, however still working on many mixtapes projects dropping soon, working on free double album which drops end of 2012 or early 2013, working on establishing own internet radio station and small online based magazine and forming my own Dj Coalition called “Take Over Djs”. Dj Far has been involved in the following projects: 5-17-06 formed Skyy Skraper Music Group L.L.C with partner * July 06 Dj Far & partner get prime time 8 to 10 pm show on Xradio.biz * Dec 07 became a Dj of Black Hand Ent * In 2009 History double disc mixtape Western Conference All Stars Special Edition Hosted by Ahmad (99 tracks, 102 diff w coast artist ranging from legends to upcoming “all exclusives” *From Jan 2010 to Sep 2011 dropped almost 20 Exclusive mixtapes with Lil Flip * and many more. go to: www.djfar.com @djfar
Compton, CA – Struggling to survive and overcome violence and poverty is a common image seen in movies and music about those who live in Compton. For West Coast rapper Cuicide, it’s all just a part of his life. He’s dealt with hardships from the moment he was born, from having been abandoned by his parents at only eighteen months old to having to make it through foster homes and more upheavals. With no place to truly call home, he took to the streets and their offers of gang banging, robbing and hustling, but even that failed to calm him and eventually lead to an attempt at taking his own life at the young age of 22 years old. He thankfully lived through that and woke up out of a coma with a renewed sense of determination to make it. Now he works through outreach programs, and touches base with his fans with the highly anticipated album “Never Give Up”. Follow OG Cuicide at: @ogcuicide1
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Imperial artist spotlight
ResourceMag
mixtape & Album releases Goldenstein
CheckMate
Emotions
Since Sliced Bread
The first Mixtape put out by Golden Child based out of the Inland Empire. available on datpiff, 18 tracks of lyrical diverse hip hop.
Checkmate is the 5th album from Mental Rsonist. This album brings forth a revolutionary type feeling, giving the listener a raw feel of hip hop mixed with real intelligence.
Album that was recently released by DMO. It gives a deep retrospective of the artistic side of DMO’s rhymes. Available for download directly off his site, its sure to be unforgettable.
The recently released album from Dame Mariatchi. This displays a whole lot from Dame, with a new melodic detroit sound. We are sure this album will give fans what they been looking for.
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Da Pharmacy
Grind Hard
Dr. Kokastien
#TrueStory
Young Freeway Nations Dirk Dilenga, had released a mixtape before signing the deal with Young Freeway Nation. A compilation of Real Street Hop, with a Cassidy type flo. This shouldnt be slept on.
Hard Head bringing back that real West Coast Gangsta Rap, just dropped Grind Hard in Conjunction with Snoops Label GG Worldwide. Now available on iTunes cop the album its full of that West Coast feel.
Sold 5000 its first week independently. This is not an everyday thing in the game anymore, Kokane continues to bring classics to the table for west coast fans. Check out the album Dr. Kokastien.
HorseShoe Gang, the secret weapon of Crooked I’s COB. This album produced by DJ Far is going to be a must listen to. If you have already heard Far’s mixes and HSG lyrics, this album will be a no brainer for true hip hop fans.
The Resource Magazine Must see documentaries
Farmageddon
The documentary that takes us inside the food industry and how organics are really being labeled and the truth behind it.
Hidden Colors
The documentary by Tariq Nasheed, on Real Black Ancestary, with alot of solid information and deep game on early Africa.
TWA Monsanto
This film gives us a real insight on what the goal and intentions are of the corporation Monsanto over the worlds food supply.
Blueprint of Madmen A movie with a corny intro, but gives some real insight to some of the future problems we may face from world governents
venue mecca the new way for your venue searches Chris Cunningham: It’s something that I’ve always been involved in, as far as music itself, at a young age. As I grew older, my passion for it grew as well. Over time, I taught myself as much as I could with the means I had. I went to school for music and just fell even more in love with it. I started producing at a young age, making albums, engineering, rapping, and deejaying. I actually started my own label when I was 19 years old, but I didn’t know what to do that well, so it kind of fell apart. That experience taught me from an early age how the music industry works. By doing that I understood the industry’s needs and what was wrong with it. I also started to see how difficult it was to find live music, or just to find a show. That spawned the need for Venue Mecca. Explain the idea behind Venue Mecca and what the company is all about. Venue Mecca was formed by musicians for musicians and the fans of live music. We are an online venue library that simply allows people to have a central source where they can find live music in their area easily. This is something that we strive to do on a daily basis. We make things as easy as possible for the user and the service is
as exceptional as it can be. We also provide everything that the venues would want, all the way from promoting their specials, photos, and all information on their shows so users can find directions to their venue instantly. Not to mention the venue can review their ratings, as well. We are essentially a phone book for venues. How long has the company been around and is Venue Mecca just an entity of Southern California, or is this going to be a nationwide company? Theoretically, we’ve been around for quite a while. I thought of Venue Mecca about nine years ago, but at the time I didn’t really have all the means and all of the pieces to put together the puzzle. It took some years to develop it the right way. It wasn’t until this year that we actually legalized everything and became an LLC. That is when the technology was there and we actually started taking on clients. Venue Mecca is local to Southern California, but in time we will be in Northern California. We’re getting ready
by Jonathan Wark
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We got the chance to sit down and talk to Chris Cunningham, owner, founder, and president of the company Venue Mecca (www.VenueMecca.com). He talks about life in the music industry and how his new company has given people the opportunity to find live music in their area at the click of a button. The Resource: Tell us a little bit about your background in the music industry.
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I’ve burned a lot of bridges in the music industry, but I’ve never done so emotionally or without careful forethought. Apparently some folks are overly emoti“Sophisticated ignorance/ write my curses in cursive” – “Otis”, Kanye West and Jay-Z When the controversial rap superstar, “2 Shackles,” granted an interview to an investigative journalist at the New Jersey Times, he agreed that it would be no holds barred. When the reporter grilled him on everything from his recent baby mama drama to his beefs with rival rappers, he addressed each question without flinching. Even when she pulled out a copy of the mugshot from his most recent arrest, he just smiled and autographed it for her. But when she asked him about the allegations that he had an extremely high IQ and graduated from college magna cum laude, he stormed out of the office, knockin’ over chairs and mumblin’ something about “birthdays and big booty guhs…..” If you go strictly by what you hear on the radio, nowadays, you would swear that Hip-Hop was made up of people with low IQs and short attention spans. The music that once prided itself on being the “Black CNN” now sounds more like a pornographic version of Sesame Street. Sad thing is that some of today’s rappers are, actually, intelligent. Now, I’m not claimin’ that they are rocket scientists but they aren’t the bumblin’ buffoons, that you hear on the radio either. So the question becomes, why do the smartest rappers make the dumbest raps? Malcolm X once said the difference between a clown and a wise man is “the clown never imitates the wise man but the wise man can imitate the clown.” However, on a three-minute song on the radio, it’s kinda hard to tell the difference. Case in point is the hottest rapper in the game right now, 2 Chainz. Some may find it hard to believe that the rapper who gave us such songs as “Birthday Song” and “No Lie” is actually Tauheed Epps , a gifted high school student who, in 1996, got an athletic scholarship to play basketball at Alabama State University; thus, putting him in the company of such athletic, scholar entertainers as Paul Robeson. However, it would be easier to find your favorite rapper’s Illuminati membership card than it would be to find an actual record of 2 Chainz’s academic prowess. So the story goes that he was either an academic genius who graduated in three years with honors, or a college dropout who only attended a couple of semesters at an institution of higher learning. However, the fact remains that he is far more intelligent than the music that he makes. If you ever listen to an interview when 2 Chainz briefly breaks out of character and reverts back to Tauheed Epps, you can tell that you’re not dealing with a dummy. So why the charade? One can make the argument that the rappers of today were not the first to make dumb music. Back in Hip-Hop’s early years , there were songs by The
“Sophisticated ignorance/ write my curses in cursive” – “Otis”, Kanye West and Jay-Z
Rappin’ Duke and Bobby Jimmy and the Critters. But raps by artists like Biz Markie were seen for what they were – comedy. The songs were just an occasional break from the more lyrically complex Hip-Hop of the time. No no one in his right mind wanted to hear “Pickin’ Boogers” all day, everyday on the radio. But today the airwaves are flooded with mentally-challenged music that has dumbed down the culture. The defenders of commercial rap are always quick to point out how HipHop is the most influential art form to ever grace the planet, and how it has impacted countries around the world, socially and economically. However, when you hit them with a socio-economic analysis of the music, they accuse you of “thinking too deep,” and all of a sudden, the great culture of Hip-Hop becomes merely “entertainment for kids,” like some Saturday morning cartoon. But the critique must be done. If we break down the meaning of “2 Chainz, “ we will see that in order to enslave a people it takes two chains – one physical and one mental. Of the two, the most powerful is the mental chain as taught by scholars such as Dr. Na’im Akbar, author of the book, Breaking the Psychological Chains of Mental Slavery. Because even when the physical chain around the wrist is broken, the mental chain around the brain remains. The emancipation from mental slavery has always been the hardest task for those trying to free a people who have been, as the scripture teaches, “destroyed for a lack of knowledge.” This is made more difficult when those who “reject knowledge” and dumb themselves down are portrayed to the youth as models of success. However, all youth are not going for the okie doke. Recently, the group Watoto from the Nile released a video called “Letter to Nicki Minaj”, which features a powerful scene where “Harriet Tubman” removes the chains from Minaj’s wrists, symbolically meaning that the chains will eventually drop from her brain. (Good luck with that one.) It is no accident that the deeper we entered into the information age, the dumber the music became. It was once said that ‘if you want to hide something from a Black man, put it in a book.’ But today, you don’t even have to take the bus to the library, as the information is literally at the tip of your fingers. So, the mental chains had to become reinforced. The music industry has been involved in a “brain drain” where they take our best and brightest artists and turn them into ratchet rappers. While it may be argued that teenage rappers like Chief Keef are too young to know any better, that’s no excuse for rappers like 2 Chainz who are old enough to be their fathers. They have made a mockery out of the saying “with age comes wisdom.” It’s time for us to break the chains. Hip-Hop artists must be pressured to stop the musical mumbo jumbo. Like KRS said on “Still #1″: “Many of you are educated/open your mouths and speak…”
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Why Do Smart Rappers Make Dumb Raps?
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