“[I]n order to understand the outlier I think you have to look around them—at their culture and community and family and generation. We’ve been looking at tall trees, and I think we should have been looking at the forest.”

Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers: The Story of Success

My most recently published book, The Nightmare and The Dream, is, in a nutshell, a comparative study of rival African-American ideologies and the icons who embodied them. Obviously, I like to think it’s about so much more than that, but really that’s what it is. Nightmare was the culmination of an idea that I pursued as far as my mind would allow it to go.  I was fascinated by the similar stories of these men’s lives; I still am. Which is why 23 year-old hip-hop sensation Drake (along the range of feelings his crossover success has provoked in people) is so interesting to me. I need to understand why The New York Times has boldly anointed him the “new face of hip hop,” corporate America is ardently pursuing his services and Hollywood is chomping at the bit. I think he’s trying to understand why. I think we are all trying to understand why. I have a theory: Drake is pop culture’s answer to the Age of Obama.

Read more: REVIBE THE CULTURE: Drake and Post-Racial Pop In the Age of Obama Pt 1.

"MARTIN LUTHER KING HAD A DREAM/WE WUS RIGHT THERE/I WONDER WAT HE SAW WHEN HE UP AND HAD NIGHTMARES/QUITE SCARED/ALL THE WORK THAT HE HAD DONE/COULDNT STOP WHAT WE BECOME/IN 2000 & BEYOND"

-BIG K.R.I.T, 2000 & BEYOND (2010)

In the last several years, there have been quite a few healthy tomes written about Hip-hop culture. Unfortunately, a large portion of that bunch tends to place Hip-hop culture outside of Black culture. Much of what is written about Hip-hop culture seems to remove it from the context of Black history particularly. Of course they point out how Hip-hop is a Black and Latino manifestation of an oppressed creativity but they leave it at that. There is no connection made to the Black Arts movement or the Black Freedom Rights struggle of the fifties, sixties, and the seventies. Dax Devlon Ross, a prolific and independent writer, brings it all home in The Nightmare and the Dream.

Read more: The Nightmare & the Dream: Nas, Jay-Z and the History of Conflict in African-American Culture

38thNotes has been a Bay Area tastemaker since 2008, bringing you the best in local arts and entertainment. That means that, among other things, we've been purveyors of great hip-hop coming out of our corner of the world. We have a lovely global diaspora of Baylien supporters to thank for our existence, but there is a huge part of the country that isn't checking for us... like at all. Our editorial team has lived in major cities like Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, and one thing has become clear, America doesn't even try to understand Bay Area music.

Read more: REVIBE THE CULTURE: Mixtape Masterpiece - 38thnotes.com Presents "The Bay Abridged"

“WE RACE AND CHASE FOR SOME OF THAT PENETRATION/CUZ ONE FUCK FROM YOU GIVES US SOME VALIDATION.”

RAFAEL CASAL, “MISOGYNY” (2010)

Paternalism is a relationship involving institutional systems depriving individuals of autonomy and agency under the guise of serving their best interest. In reality, most often, those charged with serving the interests of those individuals instead pursue an agenda that does the exact opposite. This is at the very core of the historical relationship between women and the law.

Read more: REVIBE THE WORD: Song Surgery - Rafael Casal's "Misogyny"