September 2013

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Books, Ball, Chicks

LaVon Williams

THE COME

UP

The Men of the Tenth Inc.

September 2013

Inside W.C. Handy Life and times of father of Blues.

2 Russell Simmons Discusses earning your right.

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Many years ago when I was a junior in high school, I failed off my high school basketball team. In order for me to be ruled ineligible I had to fail three or more classes and I failed 4 out of 7. When my coach told me I was ineligible to play basketball I was devastated, I thought that I passed all of my classes without applying any effort to succeed. During my hour-­‐‑long bus ride home, I just kept thinking about how dumb I was for not being able to pass my classes. What hurt even more than being a failure, was that for the past two years I worked on my basketball game in order to make the varsity team and blew it. Once I got home and told my mother about my failure, I cried like a baby. I cried so much that my mother said, “shut-­‐‑up because if you wanted to play basketball so bad, you would have never failed off the team.”

Later that evening I spoke to my father (who is an addict) and he gave me some advice that I will never forget. He said, “son if you want to play sports you must follow this order, books, ball, chicks.” He then said, “if you hit the books, you will be able to play all the ball you want, and if you play ball, you will definitely get the chicks.” Today that message is still in my head and I share it with many young student athletes because it is a simple and truthful concept to follow.

Over the years I have learned that many successful individuals have also followed this concept. For example, the first African American billionaire, Reginald Lewis once stated that he quit his college football team because he was performing horribly in school. Lewis stated:

I quit football after my freshman year and decided to get serious about my studies. The college years were wild. I crammed a lot of living into those fours years.

After a rotten freshman year, I really stated to study. I got straight A’s in economics and always went

Follow me to Page

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The Men of the Tenth Inc.

September 2013

W.C. HANDY W. C. Handy may not have invented the musical genre known as the blues, but in his artful compositions he brought this black folk music to the world'ʹs attention.

He was born William Christopher Handy on November 16, 1873, in Florence, Alabama.

His father, Charles Bernard Handy, was a minister, and the only music he allowed in their home was church music. Young Handy, however, was attracted to the work songs and blues sung by the black laborers along the nearby Tennessee River. He began music lessons on the cornet, a small horn, in a local barbershop. He was at the same time arranging church choral music for choirs. In his late teens he tried his hand at teaching but gave it up for better wages at a factory in Bessemer, Alabama.

Handy continued to play his cornet in minstrel shows and in 1893 organized a quartet to perform at the World'ʹs Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He was 2

inspired by the experience and decided to tour the country as a musician. For years he led a hand-­‐‑to-­‐‑mouth existence, often sleeping outdoors. In 1900, he accepted a teaching position at the Agricultural and Mechanical College in Huntsville, Alabama. He left in 1902 to return to performing and formed a marching and dance band in Clarksville, Mississippi. About this time he heard the blues performed by black itinerant musicians.

These earthy folk songs had more life and vitality than the kind of popular music he was playing. He eventually broke up his band and in 1905 formed the Pythion Band that played exclusively black folk music. He composed two blues numbers himself but couldn'ʹt interest a publisher in them.

Living then in Memphis, Tennessee, Handy wrote a campaign song for a local politician, Edward H. Crump. The catchy number, "ʺMr. Crump,"ʺ helped Crump win the election.

Handy felt the song had a wider appeal, changed the title to "ʺThe Memphis Blues,"ʺ

The Men of the Tenth Inc.

September 2013

Hip-­‐‑Hop Quote of the Month

GZA Is an American hip hop artist and founding member of the hip hop group the Wu-­‐‑Tang Clan. Within the clan, he is known as the "ʺspiritual head,"ʺ being both the oldest and the first within the group to receive a record deal.

GZA has appeared on his fellow clan members'ʹ solo projects and since the release of his critically acclaimed solo album, Liquid Swords (1995), he has maintained a successful solo career. Steve Huey of Allmusic has called him "ʺone of the best lyricists of the 1990s,"ʺ while the editors of About.com ranked him #17 on their list of the Top 50 MCs of Our Time (1987–2007), making him the highest-­‐‑ranking Wu-­‐‑Tang Clan.

You'ʹre just worms in the worst part of the apple that'ʹs rotten You squirm and you turn from the right, still plottin All slimy cause you stay grimy, petty crimey cat You sometime me, don'ʹt need to remind me about livin in the core, with the scramblers in front of the store The bum holdin the door, the mugging no one saw We played ball in the alley where dope was shot raw And the school they kept flawed, plus the lowest test scores Small percentage determined to strengthen they position Transformation from critical to, stable condition But it still be obstacles on niggaz that'ʹs optical Watchin you like salt-­‐‑water sharks that'ʹs tropical The money was the root and it'ʹs the instinct to make it With they pockets and fridge naked, many aim to take it Whether -­‐‑ hold up, set up, stabbin or a wet up Just to know it was the kid next door fizzucked your head up Once he fell short, frequently visit the courts And for some, another way out, is music and sports That'ʹs why I, keep the rhyme just as fly as a shot that won the championship, with just oh on the clock GZA from Babies

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The Men of the Tenth Inc.

September 2013

Continued from Page 2

and published it himself in 1912. It may have been the first published blues song in American musical history. Unfortunately, a white song promoter brought all rights from Handy for $100, and Handy never got another penny once the song became popular. In the future, he was more careful in keeping the rights to his music.

Handy wrote more blues songs, the most popular of all being "ʺSt. Louis Blues"ʺ (1912). Although he faced bankruptcy when he wrote it, "ʺSt. Louis Blues"ʺ became Handy'ʹs most successful song. It has been recorded more times than almost any other song in musical history. A worldwide hit, it was even used as a battle hymn by the Ethiopian army of Africa in the 1930s in their war with the Italians. By the 1940s, "ʺSt. Louis Blues"ʺ was earning Handy $25,000 a year in royalties.

Handy was a serious composer and his blue songs made up only a small part of his total output. His many other works include sacred songs that expressed his deep religious beliefs and ambitious symphonic pieces with such titles as Afromerican Hymn. In 1928 at Carnegie Hall in New York City, he conducted a large chorus and 30-­‐‑piece orchestra in a musical history of the African American.

Handy never stopped being a teacher, writing books about the blues and other music and penning his autobiography in 1941. W. C. Handy died in New York City on March 28, 1958.

The same year Nat King Cole portrayed him in a highly fictitious biographical film, St. Louis Blues.

A statue of Handy stands in W. C. Handy Park in Memphis'ʹs Beale Street area, a street he immortalized in his "ʺBeale St. Blues."ʺ He became the first African-­‐‑American composer to be honored with a U.S. commemorative stamp in 1969.

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beyond the course. I started reading the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal every day.

But I had fun, too.

In Reginald Lewis’ book, Why Should All the White Guys Have the Fun, he shares how he achieved academic success, became a lawyer, businessman, and ladies man. He believed “to be a lawyer, one must work hard” and wrote that on his college schedule as a reminder for how having a strong work ethic and sacrificing other activities to achieve academic success would pay off.

I share this story with you with hope that you will pass it on to others because if they want to achieve any type of success it first starts with an education.

Even my addicted father knew that.

EARN THE RIGHT. Let men also say a quick word about anyone who feels like they’re dressing “too white” by putting on a suit and tie every day. When I first started representing rappers, I didn’t dress like a rapper. I dressed in a style that I felt would make record executives comfortable doing business with me. At the time, that meant wearing corduroy pants, plaid wood sports jackets with suede elbow patches, oxford shirts, and penny loafers. That certainly wasn’t how I dressed in my private life, but that was the uniform I felt would give me the best chance to earn me and my clients some money. After I had become established and had experienced success with Rush Management and Def Jam, then I felt it was okay to start wearing jeans, Adidas sneakers, and fisherman caps I preferred. But I didn’t make that change until I had earned the right to dress however I wanted. Until you earn that right in your career, you need to leave the baseball caps, baggy jeans, and boots at home when its time to do business. As long as you’re in a corporate setting, you best bet is to dress like the guy whose job you want.

THE COME UP

The Men of the Tenth Inc. 750 Faile Street Suite 2E Bronx, New York 10474 www.themenofthetenth.org

September 2013