July 16, 2016
When you talk about grinding and hustling for your dream, Oakland’s DLabrie has rocked mics from New York to Seoul and collaborated with some of the most intellectual rappers of our generation. A few months ago he premiered the “Stay Black and Die” video, which included appearances by rappers M1, Shamako, Mac Mall and Ray Luv, at the Oakland International Film Festival. He is definitely someone who has a lot to say. Check out DLabrie in his own words.
July 14, 2016
BlockReportRadio.com interviews international peace activist Dr. Cynthia McKinney, live from Bangladesh, about the police executions of Alton Sterling and Phil Castile. We also talk about presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Dr. McKinney speaks on the Clintons’ history of corruption as well as Hillary’s role in the tragic situations in Haiti and Libya, where elected governments were overthrown, and Qaddafi was murdered. She also gives us her perspective on Brexit. The song at the end is by Mac Mall and M1 called “Killiminati.”
June 22, 2016
M1 of the revolutionary hip hop empire Dead Prez has done it again with some conscious and political lyrics to feed the soul of the people. “Between Me and the World” is produced by none other than the talented Italian producer Bonnot and is filled with an array of political soul food, which will keep you full from start to finish. M1 begins the album with a fire song titled, “Number One with a Bullet,” featuring Prodigy.
May 21, 2015
Writer, reporter and Pan Africanist Obi Egbuna, the U.S. correspondent to the Zimbabwean national newspaper The Herald, recently finished, alongside co-executive producer M1 of dead prez, the third volume of the “Battle Cry for Cuba and Zimbabwe” compilation, which is a cultural protest against how the two countries have been unfairly sanctioned by the U.S. government. Check out Obi Egbuna in his own words.
May 17, 2015
This upcoming week, on May 19, we will celebrate the 90th birthday of the late great El Hajj Malik El Shabazz aka our beloved Malcolm X, all over the world. But what will not be talked about in most of these celebrations, unrightfully so, will be the murder of his grandson, Malcolm Latif Shabazz two years earlier on May 10, 2013. Here is Hashim Aluddeen’s perspective on Young Malcolm, on the second anniversary of his assassination.
January 4, 2014
Word reached The Liberator Magazine that revolutionary Black independent media is about to expand with the impending launch of Block Report Radio Station on the internet. So they sought out its founder, Oakland journalist JR Valrey, to ask him why he devotes his life to independent media and what we can expect from the new Block Report Radio Station.
October 1, 2013
When Malcolm Latif Shabazz was assassinated on May 9, 2013, in Mexico City, it was a devastating blow to people all over the world, but it was especially catastrophic to those of us who knew “Young Malcolm.” I thought that it would be important to bring the thoughts of Mutulu Olugbala aka M1 on the life and assassination of Malcolm Shabazz to our readers, because this chapter of Young Malcolm’s life has never been told.
September 30, 2013
The 29th birthday of the late El Hajj Malcolm Latif Shabazz, the grandson of the late great El Hajj Malik El Shabazz aka Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, will be commemorated on Oct. 8, 2013. This is the first birthday since he was brutally murdered in Mexico City on May 9, 2013. Shaykh Hashim Alauddeen was Malcolm’s Imam, and the one who presided over Malcolm’s funeral in Oakland.
November 23, 2012
The rap group dead prez have by far some of the most radical politics of any artists in American music today. We caught up with M1 to talk music and politics for a minute, right before they come out here this Saturday, Nov. 24, and rap songs from their new album “Information Age” as a part of the Rebel Soul Fest, which is going down at Yoshi’s in San Francisco.
June 20, 2011
Rico Pabón is one of the most talented, versatile, dedicated and well-informed artists that I know on the West Coast. At home in the studio or on the stage, the Afro-Puerto Rican bilingual musician known as Rico Pabón is a man of many genres. Although hip hop is the music of his generation, he is just as comfortable singing traditional Afro-Carribbean tunes with a live band.
March 13, 2011
Bay Area journalist JR Valrey, the voice behind Block Report Radio on KPFA and associate editor of SF Bay View, known as the Minister of Information, reports vital news about the struggle against oppression. In the 31 interviews in his new book, “Block Reportin’,” he shows what he calls the “big gap between what is going on in the world and what is being reported. I want to inspire people to become their own media and to truly speak on behalf of the people.” Meet JR at his first book signing Saturday, March 19, 6:30 p.m., at Marcus Books, 3900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland.
March 2, 2011
The legendary rap group dead prez will be coming to the Bay Area to perform at Yoshi’s in San Francisco this Friday, March 4. Their free mixtape, “Revolutionary But Gangsta Grillz,” was one of the dopest albums dropped in 2010.
February 10, 2011
On Feb. 18, 7 p.m., at Modern Times Bookstore, Krip-Hop Nation will present an author panel of new books by Black disabled writers and friends, including Toni Hickman of Texas, Adarro Minton of New York, Allen Jones of San Francisco and friends of Krip-Hop Nation, DC Curtis and Bones Kendall of Los Angeles.
November 24, 2010
Leonard Peltier is a legendary leader of resistance against police and government oppression specifically dealing with the indigenous people of Turtle Island (Amerikkka). Now his nephew Aaron is releasing the “Free Leonard Peltier Album,” which features some of the most notable rappers on the scene today that rap for freedom. The listening party is Tuesday, Nov. 30, 6:30 p.m., at the Black Dot Cafe, 1195 Pint St., West Oakland.
February 16, 2010
An old school relentless plantation-style colonialism governs the country currently through mostly white non-governmental organizations just as well as through armies like those of the U.S. and U.N. that control the flow of resources. – MULTIMEDIA BONUS: Listen to Davey D’s interview with Minister of Information JR immediately after his return from Haiti.
October 4, 2009
The first stop on the Ghetto to Gaza Speaking Tour was in Sacramento with the Hip Hop Congress at Capital Garage. The usual Wednesday event is their weekly open mic, but it was altered to feature M1’s experience in Cairo and Gaza. Then we went to East Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley, West Oakland, San Jose, Santa Cruz and Sonoma.
October 2, 2009
The Maafa Ritual begins before dawn on Sunday, Oct. 11, about 5:30-6 a.m., at Ocean Beach on the Great Highway at Fulton Street in San Francisco. Invited are Black people interested in honoring our ancestors who perished in the European Slave Trade and its aftermath via colonialism and other forms of genocide like incarceration, terrible occurrences or reoccurring disasters felt today. Maafa Awareness Month was founded and has been organized by Bay View Arts Editor Wanda Sabir for 11 years.
August 16, 2009
The SF Bay View newspaper is in dire financial straits, and former presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney is bailing us out with her stimulus plan that comes by way of the Triumph Tour through Northern California that is being organized as a series of fundraisers for a very essential media outlet that amplifies the people’s voices in times of need and in times of triumph.