Over the past few weeks we have been talking about the decision of The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS) to eliminate 30 categories in the Grammy Awards. Those categories primarily affect Black Music - Latin, R&B, Hip Hop, etc.

It's refreshing to see the fight continuing and you can get involved. First take a look at what is starting to happen:

Here is a formal statement of action from indie soul standard bearer Eric Roberson (pictured) who, for the last two years, has been nominated for Grammy Awards in the Urban Alternative category which has been cut by NARAS.

In honor of Black Music Month, and also in honor of a TRUE Urban Alternative artist and pioneer of this genre, the late Mr. Gil Scott-Heron, we ask that every member of the urban community that agrees with the spirit of this protest join us in a POSITIVE protest against this injustice to the urban community.  This document is a guideline to ensure that everyone involved is on the same page on what we are trying to achieve.  You don't have to stick to this document word for word, but again, to ensure that we obtain our objectives, we ask that you stay true to what we are trying to accomplish.

 Guidelines For A Unified Protest of The Decision of The Recording Academy to Eliminate the Best Urban Alternative Performance Category And The Combining of The Best R&B Album and Best Contemporary R&B Categories

  Phase I

  Objectives:

The R&B Community would like to request that The Recording Academy:

·    Reinstate the Best Urban Alternative Performance category.

·    Reinstate the separation of Best R&B Album & Best Contemporary R&B Album

Statement from the R&B Community:

The R&B community which consists of Urban Alternative, R&B, Traditional R&B, Funk, Neo Soul, Soul, House, Jazz, Hip Hop, Gospel, Spoken Word, etc...have united to speak out against the decision by The Recording Academy to eliminate The Best Urban Alternative Performance Category and the combining of the categories Best R&B Album & Contemporary R&B Album.

Before speaking publicly about this protest please take the time to educate yourself a little about the Urban Alternative genre and the different styles of R&B music.

Some Key Points:

Urban Alternative is a very vibrant and active genre that is the natural evolution of R&B music.  Getting rid of this category stops the growth of the R&B genre.

Artists Important to the Urban Alternative Genre:

Meshell Ndegeocello, Jill Scott, Eric Roberson, Janelle Monáe, Cee Lo, Foreign Exchange, India.Arie, YahZarah, Maiysha, Lupe Fiasco, OutKast, Alice Smith, Bilal, Mos Def, Wayna, Erykah Badu.

Past Grammy winners:

India.Arie, Dobet Gnahorè, OutKast, Damian Marley, Gnarls Barkley, Chrisette Michele, Lupe Fiasco, will.i.am

It is not realistic to think that Urban Alternative music is the same as Alternative music.  Furthermore it is not realistic to think that Urban Alternative projects will have a fair chance of winning in the Best Alternative Album category. 

The Recording Academy failed to include members of the Urban Alternative community when talks began to eliminate this category.  It appears as though there was an agenda in place to not include anyone that would speak against eliminating the category.  We would like to see The Recording Academy include the Urban Alternative community in future discussions regarding this matter.

There is a distinct difference between Contemporary R&B artists (Keri Hilson, Beyoncè, Usher, Trey Songz, Chris Brown, Ryan Leslie, Ciara) and R&B artists (Maxwell, Sade, D'Angelo, Jill Scott, R. Kelly,Anthony David, Kelly Price, Alicia Keys).  We ask that The Recording Academy acknowledge this difference and do the fair thing; separate the categories and let like artists compete against artists that are similar in styles.

         The Recording Academy has a belief that just because there are low entries in a category that the music must not be out there, when in fact the music is out there.  They believe that the music is not relevant anymore when it is.  They believe that because it's not covered in the press, it must not be supported. When artists like Meshell Ndegeocello always sell out concerts and continues to sell her music to her fans.  We believe The Recording Academy has this perception because of the lack of communication between the urban communities, which includes R&B, Hip Hop & Gospel.  There is also the perception that The Recording Academy does not want a relationship with the urban community unless they become "Pop" R&B stars.  We ask that The Recording Academy do a better job of REAL outreach to the urban community.  We also request a commitment from the Chair & President of The Recording Academy to meet with leaders from the urban community to have REAL discussions on the perceptions each other has from both sides and to discuss achieving real solutions towards bridging the gap between the both parties.  

·         The urban community recognizes the great work that The Recording Academy does to help musicians and music professionals.  We applaud the work of MusiCares and The Grammy Foundations.  We appreciate the hard work of the employees, officers and volunteers.  And in no way does this protest desire to discredit The Recording Academy.  But sometimes in a house all the rooms are not in order.  In this case our issue is only with the decision to eliminate the Best Urban Alternative Category and the combining of Best R&B Album and Best Contemporary R&B Album.

·         If you are a member of The Recording Academy we encourage you to continue your membership and become an active member of change.  Get involved and let The Recording Academy know how you feel. There is no need to fear any type of retaliation.  The Recording Academy is your Academy and you have the right to protest actions by The Recording Academy that affect you.

If you are not a member of The Recording Academy you still have the right to get involved with this protest.  This protest is about the continued disrespect and corporate elimination of R&B music.  By creating the Best Urban Alternative Performance category The Recording Academy listened to the efforts of all involved with the creation of this category and gave a voice to a very important musical movement. 

This category put the genre of Urban Alternative music and the artists associated with it on a grand scale.  The creation of this category exposed artists who push the music forward to a wider audience.  Getting rid of this category affects the artists and the whole Urban Alternative community and most importantly all the fans of this music and future fans of this music.  So if you are not a member of The Recording Academy we still encourage you to join this protest.  Once again, we encourage the urban community to join and become active members of The Recording Academy.  If you are hesitant about joining and want to see how this protest is received by The Recording Academy, that's fine too.  We still welcome your support of this protest.

                                       How You Can Help:

• We ask that our "celebrities" that have access to the press spread the word about this protest in every interview that they do. 
• We ask that music professionals including record company executives, musicians, engineers, publicists, managers, producers, writers, and vocalists, anyone that is against the decision made by The Recording Academy, join in spreading the word by any means necessary.
• Take advantage of all media outlets: TV, radio, vlogs, blogs, all social media outlets, etc...
• Word of mouth is key!  Tell your colleagues, friends and anyone connected to the urban community to join the discussion and then join the protest. 
• Speak only about what you know.  If all you know is that you don't like them getting rid of the Best Urban Alternative Performance category then just say that.  Again, we don't want the protest to be about anything other than the objectives stated above.
• EDUCATE YOURSELF ABOUT WHO THE RECORDING ACADEMY IS AND WHAT THEY DO.  www.grammy.com
  

PRESERVE, PROMOTE AND RECOGNIZE OUR MUSIC!

Gil Scott-Heron, one of the most influential artists of his generation, whose mesmerizing spoken word, often politically-charged music such as the seminal "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," would set the stage for new levels of artistic expression in popular music, has died in New York at age 62. Scott-Heron had reportedly become ill upon his return from a trip to Europe. The Chicago-born Scott-Heron began his recording career in 1970 with the LP Small Talk at 125th and Lenox.  The album's 15 tracks dealt with themes such as the superficiality of television and mass consumerism, the hypocrisy of some would-be Black revolutionaries, white middle-class ignorance of the difficulties faced by inner-city residents, and homophobia. In the liner notes, Scott-Heron acknowledged as influences Richie Havens, John Coltrane, Otis Redding, Jose Feliciano, Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Nina Simone, and the pianist who would become his long-time collaborator, Brian Jackson.

Scott-Heron's 1971 album Pieces of a Man used more conventional song structures than the loose, spoken-word feel of Small Talk. He was joined by Johnny Pate (conductor), Brian Jackson on keyboards, piano, Ron Carter on bass and bass guitar, drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, Burt Jones playing electric guitar, and Hubert Laws on flute and saxophone, with Thiele producing again. Scott-Heron's third album, Free Will, was released in 1972. Jackson, Purdie, Laws, Knowles, and Saunders all returned to play on Free Will and were joined by Jerry Jemmott playing bass, David Spinozza on guitar, and Horace Ott (arranger and conductor).

1974 saw the critically acclaimed opus Winter in America, arguably Scott-Heron's most cohesive album to date. It set the stage for a string of albums, made almost annually for the rest of the decade and into the early 80s.

As the 90s came about, Scott-Heron's legacy continued to grow. Given the political consciousness that lies at the foundation of his work, he can also be called a founder of political rap. His early 90s song "Message to the Messengers" was a plea for the new generation of rappers to speak for change rather than perpetuate the current social situation, and to be more articulate and artistic.

In 2001, Gil Scott-Heron was sentenced to one to three years' imprisonment in New York State for possession of cocaine. He was jailed again in 2006. After his release in 2007,  Scott-Heron began performing live again, and continued to make live appearances until the time of his death.

Gil Scott-Heron released his new album I'm New Here on independent label XL Recordings on February 9, 2010. The album attracted substantial critical acclaim with The Guardian newspaper's Jude Rogers declaring it one of the next decade's best records.


Courtesy Soultracks.com

So we were talking on the air over the last week about what the "birthers" and other right wing  persons would have to say about President Obama now that he has done what he promised he would do and what his predecessor could not do over almost 8 years , find and kill Osama Bin Laden.Well we now know that the right wing has their new issue with President Obama and it is that the First Lady invited hip hop artist Common to a special White house Poetry event as a role model for children.

Most of us know Common as an 2x Grammy Award winning conscious rapper who's also a quality actor, appears in family friendly ads for companies like The Gap and has authored 4 BEST SELLING CHILDREN'S BOOKS! But in a case of condemning what you don't choose to listen to or understand, members of the right wing see Common as a rapper who uses the "N" Word, espouses cop killing and has openly suggested violence against the President (President Bush). Therefore he is not a role model and
it's a travesty that he was invited to the White House and an example of President Obama and the First Lady returning to their radical roots. What is even worse is there are comments that I have read online from people who should know better that actually agree with some or all of this faulty argument from these right wing members who are looking for anything to demean and degrade our President.

There are so many thoughts that I have about this so called controversy. But it's better to folks make up their own mind by viewing the arguments and words from the person at the center of this "controversy". First look at the argument of those who deem Common unworthy of being invited to the White House, courtesy of Sean Hannity and Fox News.

Be clear,  there are two appearances that Common made on Def Poetry Jam  where he referenced President Bush. Here are both appearances:

Again, there are so many ways to respond notion that the invitation of Common to the White House is a return to President Obama's radical roots. Instead of writing more words here is the absolute perfect response to such faulty arguments, logic and reasoning. Here is Jon Stewart in two parts.

Part I -

      

Part II

Finally, I present to you Common from The White House:

Hey FOX News, He's really radical huh?