Destination Xpress

FIYAWATA/GREEN FESTIVAL

What could I say - WE DID IT. OBAMA. Got a Blackman in office, But WHAT DOES THAT MEAN???

After meditating and visualizing on that question for 10 minutes hit me up on my blog and leave a comment at http://destinednationmedia.blogspot.com.

Why do I begining this blast this way? Well one answer: perspective. What does Obama mean to you? To me: possibility, REALITY- America couldn't really be realistic without electing Obama after 8 years of BUSH---shit and finally change. Funny right. Well Obama represents change, what change do you PLAN to manifest? Sorry folks, I don't mean to talk to myself outloud again, but can you relate? Anyway FIYAWATA, Grind for The Green and in this case my wife Zakiya Harris are all about change. I highlight Zakiya, because she has successfully directed this year's SF Green Festival and one of her main contributions to it was bringing Hip-Hop to the forefront of its Green Mission (see the flyer for the Friday evening's event "Word To The Mother (Earth) which should've been called Hip-Hop's Gonna work it out). And with Obama in office what could I say Brothers Gonna Work It Out!!!! Are or we really? Maybe if we really listen to sisters for a change. What do you think? Tell me at http://destinednationmedia.blogspot.com.

But speaking about Hip-Hop: FIYAWATA is hosting that event on November 14th from 6:30pm-8:30pm and we're rocking on the following day, November 15th at Green Festival again at 3pm. What's up with FIYAWATA, well other than having our name mentioned 3 times already in this blog, we're finally going to drop our second project this year - Jouney Into Sound 2, originally a mixtape, now a suite before the holidays and we got a barrage of jams coming your way after that. Find out more at our latest write up at http://adambernard.blogspot.com/2008/11/screamed-at-by-ska-girl.html Just to note here at Destined Nation Media we keep promotion shameless. With that one last plug TOWNTRONIKS. That's all I'm saying.

If you're really real about change though visit MoveOn.org and Repoweramerica.org. Another place to learn about a change that can save the planet is Van Jones' book Green Collar Economy, check it out.

Thanks for listening, reading and putting Hope in The White House. Now we just have to paint it Black or multicolor.
Love,

Ambessa The Articulate

VOTE HIP HOP NOW!!!!

HIP-HOP

33 years old and it's founders are quickly approaching 50. Made from streets littered with junkies, drugs, crime, lost hopes, poverty and style. Fitting the profile of many black males today. Somewhat drug related, somewhat deviant, somewhat prison prone.
Not supposed to be successful, productive, law abiding, thriving, assimilated, upwardly mobile. Well... guess what?

HIP-HOP

From selling crack to smoking it. From outcast to celebrity. From bum to king. From Trials and Tribulation to Triumph. From ghetto to Hollywood, Rome. From poor black kid's music to Globalization's music. From ashy to classy. It's mantra punks dissed me but in my face they kiss my ass. What's your credo now Hip-Hop, clothes, bankrolls and hoes or CHANGE? You made it Kid, you've arrived. And now as you deliver your keynote to the cosmos what will your message be. Pop the bubbly, Party and Bullshit, Take the Bitch to the Telli. Or are you going to announce that you will now raise your kids, make right by your baby mamas, leave the drugs alone, leave the THUG alone. Will you now see a chiropractor to straighten out the crooks in your back to walk upright or will it be more party and bullshit and party and bullshit? The chance is now. The fork is in the road, what will you feed yourself now.

Make the change in the polls, make the change in the streets, make the change in your homes, make the change in you ...deep.

Let's all go vote, not tomorrow but today, right where you are now. Before the Revolution comes, The Evolution must come.

Vote HIP HOP NOW

Artists Who Grind

The Bay's 1st Ever Solar Powered Hip-Hop Concert

Were ya there? If not where the hell were ya ???  

 Sunday, September 7, 2008 at  8:15 AM it happened, our alarm clock rang. 

"AAAAAHHHH it's Sunday !!!!!!" 

8:15 AM on Sunday is like 5:00 am on any other . Anyway fast forward an hour and we arrived at Yerba Buena Gardens to cap off our 2008, 1st annual Grind for the Green festival with the 1st Solar Powered Hip-Hop Concert ever to take place in San Francisco. 

This epic event headlined by Raashan Ahmad and a condensed version of Crown City Rockers, began with us arriving a few minutes shy of 9:30 AM to greet Orion from Solar Living Institute who greeted us with a great surprise, The Solar Power would not be doable. What ???  Well apparently the distance from where 1,000 pound solar panel on wheels was parked was too far to conduct a proper charge from the cable that distributed it to the stage.  We needed a  fatter cord and we needed an electrician to  uninstall and install the different cables. In short, blah, blah, blah.

 So, here we are mommy, daddy and baby bear all ready to commemorate our day in the sun, powered by the sun on a Sunday  and we heard naaah son.  Disappointing huh? Well despite this horrible news, I proceeded to carry boxes, turntables and bags of food into the gardens. We kept it moving till finally,Yerba Buena Gardens' staff located an on duty electrician who was a block away at the Metreon and was able to do the damn thing. He wouldn't even take a tip from me or let me buy him lunch, he merely said "that's what I'm here for". Kudos to you, Electrician Sean. 

The rest as they say was hip-hop. Ren the Vinyl archaeologist  played classics and everybody else on the bill ripped. From Cov Records' J- Million who kicked it off with a debonair showcase of witty lady songs and Queen Deelah who steadily built up momentum with a hard but feminine set to us, FIYAWATA and Jahi whose performances knocked top Bay Area groups out their spots. (This is me looking into a near future) The whole event was grand, what was really exciting was when our 3 finalists went song for song and our boy Olondis (Lil-O) Walker took the $500 cash prize. If that wasn't enough Raashan Ahmad closed out the show with his crew mates Kat 010 and Woodstock as if they were Run-DMC hungrily killing their first tour.  If this wasn't huge enough, on Thursday September 11, 2008, (7th anniversary of 9-11) we open up for Digable Planets at DNA Lounge. Next to stop: 3 shows in NYC. Look out for this is a Journey into Sound Volume II. 

Grind 4 the Green: Sustainable Hip-Hop or Bust

"Broken glass everywhere, people pissin on the stairs you know they just don't care."

Any true lover of Hip-Hop can immediately identify the quote above, and if they're old enough reminisce what they were doing when they first heard it. For that matter a die hard 16 year-old hip-hop enthusiast today can probably recant the entire song with a deeply heartfelt inner serenity when they get to the famous hook "Don't push me cuz I'm close to the edge, I'm trying not to lose my head". Lyrics like these Melle Mel penned keepsakes represent an era in Hip-Hop when inner city residents went head to head against local and national government policies that brought drugs, crime, disparity, poverty and pollution into our neighborhoods. A time that made the creation of hip-hop a stark necessity. Fast forward 20 years later hip-hop is the world leader in music and a multi billion dollar industry and the blocks where it came from still have broken glass everywhere? Wait, a minute something is wrong here, how can this still be the case? Where are all the mainstream giants? The Jay Z's, The 50's, The Diddy's and Weezy's ? Who's gonna clean up the block? Who's gonna teach the kids? How come no one's doing anything to pick up the broken glass? Do they just not care? 

Oh wait, there is someone, it's the folks from Grind for the Green or G4G. It's us, no to toot our own horns but really it's us. Grind for the Green G4G is annual 4 part summer eco music festival produced for and by youth that has been initiated in the San Francisco Bay Area. With this program of ours, we've decided to address the issue of environmental racism in our neighborhoods which is part of the planet's holistic environmental problem that has been growing at an alarmingly toxic rate. In rehashing this program known once upon a time as Grind and Glory, we - Zakiya Harris and myself Ambessa Cantave hired and trained 8 Frisco and Oakland youth to throw 4 events: a music business conference, performance workshop, beat battle and solar powered concert. Thus far we've successfully executed 2 of them. Our Music Business conference which was preceded by a party at Club Mighty, had Talib Kweli as it's keynote speaker and the chief rocker at the pre-party. We busted our asses and worked literally off of 2.5 hours of sleep to see it through.  Thank God for panelists like Namane, Goapele's manager from Sky Blaze Records, Kerry Fiero of  Strive Management and Rob Collins of BAVC/BUMP, amongst others.  We also just knocked out event 2 which was a performance workshop, with topics covered by Bay Area art mavericks such as, JAHI, Do-DAT and Elefant of the Attik, Nu-Dakades and Ahsabi Monique. We as FIYAWATA just ran around like mad people. Through both of these events our eyes opened to the possibilities that lie in this kind of work which is one part music business education and ecological solutions building. In all of our events, mind you we pledge to only use recycled and recyclable food ware, stationery and other materials as part of our campaign. After these four events we will be placing about eight youth into SF State's Music Recording Industry program in the Spring and taking them on an eco-awareness raising eco-tour after that. This goes to show that no matter how braggadocios the mainstream maybe, solutions for hip-hop and our people's future, once again stems from the underground.