Dan Charnas on IllDoctrine.com

Jay interviewed me for his second piece on Asher Roth. Check it here:



You can watch his first piece here.

White Devil Becomes White Angel - Tony D. R.I.P. (1966-2009)

Very few white boys in hip-hop could make the Black heads say, "Damn!"

Rick Rubin did it. Eminem could too. And so could the producer Tony D.

I still have clear memories of that day, 20 years ago, when my roommate Paul incessantly imitated a song he heard on Red Alert's radio show, a song that mashed-up lyrics from Rakim and Chuck D. for the chorus:

Back to the lab/Know what I mean?
Back to the lab/Bazooka, the scheme!

That was Tony D.

There were two Tony D's back in the day, actually. It was very confusing. One Tony D. was MC Serch's partner in the record label Idlers (as in "Tony Dick gets the gas face"). Idlers, of course, was the record label that brought us the Jungle Brothers.

The other Tony D. was Anthony Depula, of Trenton, New Jersey. This was the Tony D. over whom my roommate Paul gushed; the Tony D. I would soon meet when I started working for Profile Records, the home of Run-D.M.C., Rob Base, Special Ed; the Tony D. who brought the world YZ and Poor Righteous Teachers; and the Tony D. who died this past weekend when his car rolled off a roadside in New Jersey. Tony wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and he broke his neck. He was 42, and had a wife and two daughters.

I was, 20 years ago, a very serious little man about hip-hop when Profile Records' president Cory Robbins plucked me out of the mailroom to do radio promotion and write artist bios. Poor Righteous Teachers, three young Five Percenters from Trenton, were the first group I promoted. I took all of this so seriously that I created a glossary of all the terms they used — some from the Five Percent Nation, some Trentonian, others from outer space — and distributed it to national media. Their records were incredible: Red Alert had been running their first record, "Time To Say Peace,"; and their new single, "Rock Dis Funky Joint," was bananas.

So it came as a surprise to me when their producer walked into my office for the first time: 200 pounds of beefy Italian-American, with a stringy mustache, pointy goatee and greasy long hair topped with a baseball cap. Tony was gregarious, in constant motion for a heavy guy, always with a huge smirk on his face. How did a bona-fide, self-admitted greaseball become the producer of Afrocentric, militant Muslim hip-hop artists like PRT and YZ? The way Tony put it was that since he was Sicilian, he was "33 1/3 percent Original Man" anyway. That, he claimed, was his hip-hop pass.

But the real reason was that Tony D. was dope. His beats were always crisp and clean in a way that he himself wasn't. Tony D. achieved something that most hip-hop producers never do: His beats sounded like he made them. It's hard to describe his signature sound. Maybe it was the little after-bounce he gave to his kick drums. Or perhaps it was his collage-art choruses pieced together from two, three, or more different sources:

"Rock dat!" "Funky..." "Joint, joint, joint"

We hung out during the video shoot for "Rock Dis Funky Joint," and I got that record played across the country, from Kiss FM in New York to KDAY in L.A. The hit record made Tony D.'s personal plans possible, and Tony D. landed a solo deal with 4th & Broadway. Yeah, Tony D., a/k/a Harvee Wallbanger, was a rapper, too — sort of a cross between Kool Keith and Dom DeLuise. He was naturally funny guy, so entertaining that Cory Robbins took a throwaway Poor Righteous Teachers song on which Tony made a cameo, and placed it at the beginning of their album. Wise Intelligent, the group's leader, may not have thought much of Tony's lyrical abilities ("rock some of that rubbish you be writing"). But the white devil could sure make a beat.

Tony D. handled being the devil with great aplomb. He was a ball-buster himself, so he didn't get too bent out of shape when you busted his. I once told Tony, always rapping even when nobody invited him to, that I "wanted to sign his breath." Tony took it like a champ.

An amusing truth about white boys in hip-hop is that, often, we tried to outdo each other in games of "Blacker than Thou ." That's probably why Tony D. and Serch never got along, despite my failed attempt once, at Irving Plaza, to get them to talk. They ended up fighting.

After I left Profile and went to work for Rick Rubin at Def American, I tried to involve Tony D. in anything major that I did. I signed one of his groups, the seriously misnamed Blaque Spurm, for its seriously talented MC, Bobbie Fine. When I retreated from hip-hop for a while, resuming the writing career I started many years back at The Source, I lost touch with Tony.

We got re-acquainted when I began writing my book on the history of the hip-hop business. Tony D. was still living in Trenton, still making beats, still managed by Kevon Glickman, the former counsel for Ruffhouse Records. Just over a year ago, I made plans to interview them both for the book. I was supposed to drive down from New York, pick Tony up in Trenton, and then drive us both to Philly to meet Kevon. Tony had to cancel at the last minute.

"I have to watch my daughter," he said. That was the last time we spoke.

Perhaps Tony D. could have been bigger if he had left Trenton behind. But then again, Tony D. knew who he was. Italian, Sicilian, American, Jersey boy, white boy, DJ, rapper, beat-maker, husband, father. How many of us are that secure? Tony D. may have been a devil to some, but I'm pretty sure Black Jesus is saying "Daaaaaayyum!" courtesy of his rotund new archangel. Trenton makes, God takes.

Tony, at last, has gone back to the Lab.

Know what I mean?

2:00 a.m., Harlem

Still noises of celebration in the streets...

Good Night, and God Bless America.

Tonight, she deserves those blessings.

A Nation Changed, A Nation Unchanged

From my piece in NewsOne:

The election of the first Black president of the United States is not the end of white supremacy in America.

But it is the beginning of the end.

America was founded upon the very idea of the white man reigning. America was conceived by conquering, colonial, Christian Europeans. They vanquished the continent’s native population, and enslaved Africans to build their nation.

But America’s independence was won by men who talked of Freedom. The result: America was born with two opposing Manifest Destinies. One was the desire to build a new empire for the European on emptied land. The other was the ideal of a new nation where all Men are free.

The entirety of American history is the result of this split personality, the two sides trying to reconcile themselves — from the 3/5ths Clause in the Constitution, to the Civil War, to the Civil Rights movement. These conflicts were the direct result of the presence of Black people in America, a constant reminder to the white man that his ideals meant nothing if he did not pursue them to their logical end. Every election since then has been a referendum on where we lean on this question: Are we a patriarchal, white, Christian nation? Or are we a multicultural democracy?

For the past two presidential elections, the contest between these two ideas was so close that small acts of fraud kept power in the hands of the party that most represents the interests of the patriarchy. For eight years, the Republicans squandered our treasure on missions to expanding American supremacy against foreign and domestic foes both real and imagined. Faced with the prospect of four more years of war and financial ruin, the American electorate chose overwhelmingly tonight to reject American triumphalism and replace it with American realism.

The Republicans lost for the same reason that all patriarchies eventually lose. The rule of the privileged creates corruption and greed. Corruption and greed inevitably produce ideas so foolish and breed people so incompetent that they burn their own house down. It took just eight years for the idiot son to destroy everything his fathers had built.

The Democrats won for the same reason that all democracies eventually win, by including and inspiring all people. The Democrats, after decades of paying lip-service to Black Americans and taking the Black vote for granted, finally yielded to a powerful candidate who represented Black folks’ interests — not just for who he is but for what he believes. But in so doing, the Democrats tapped into something they never expected: A new generation of young whites who wanted to close the chapter on America’s racist past and be a part of America’s multicultural future.

Obama or not, we are all going there. But the road will not be easy. The Klu Klux Klan of old may not be marching in the streets, but the forces of white supremacy are still very much here. Some of them are skinheads and militiamen with guns and explosives. Others are corporate men who seek to preserve their financial and skin privilege through the power of their money; through their ability to hire, or not hire. Still others are politicians who will use this opportunity to claim that racism no longer exists, and that its remedies should be withdrawn. Right now, these people are all cornered. And a cornered animal is the most dangerous. There will likely be decades of struggle as the political pendulum swings back and forth, as the former powers-that-be adjust to the new philosophical and demographic reality. Some of our foes will go quietly. Others will not. But go they will. Hopefully, the Secret Service will do its job. We must also do ours. Stay vigilant.

Obama’s ascendance to the nation’s highest office will open horizons and create higher aspirations for Black Americans. A Black family will now occupy the same White House from which Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. But a Black Camelot will not immediately heal our country’s split personality, and certainly will not change the facts on the ground for many Black Americans — still the poorest, still without good schools, without decent housing, without health or child care, still without fulfilling jobs that pay a living wage. Even if president-elect Obama is everything we hope he is, it will take more terms than he could legally fill to put all Americans on an equal footing.

Tonight, we are a country changed, and we are a country unchanged.

Tomorrow, America takes her first steps toward her true Manifest Destiny, the multicultural democracy.

I might vote Republican. Sike.

If the Republicans truly were who they said they were, I might vote Republican.

If the Republicans were truly fiscally responsible, they might have my vote. It’s good to spend less than you make. But the past three Republican administrations have presided over the biggest expansion of debt in U.S. history.

If the Republicans were truly for lower taxes, they might have my vote. But the taxes they lower are for businesses and the ultra rich. Folks who make 50 grand a year lose a third of their salary, so someone who makes a million a year can save 100 grand.

If the Republicans were truly for a strong defense, they might have my vote. But the Republican wars seem to make us weaker. Their bungling of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq give me absolutely no confidence.

If the Republicans truly took our enemies seriously, they might have my vote. But instead of using covert operations and espionage that might create real intelligence about terrorists, they launch full-scale invasions of countries that have nothing to do with terrorism.

If the Republicans were truly tough, they might have my vote. But the Republicans of today are not about being tough. They are about looking tough.

If the Republicans were truly for free markets, they might have my vote. But “free markets” under Republican rule mean handouts for the rich, not the poor.

If the Republicans were truly for liberty and individual responsibility, they might have my vote. But while Republicans don’t want the government telling them where to send their kids to school, they have no problem telling women what to do with their bodies, or censoring what people should watch, hear and read.

If the Republicans were truly for Christian ethics, morality and spirituality, they might have my vote... and I’m Jewish. But so many Republicans vote for policies that are the antithesis of the teachings of Jesus, who called for stewardship of the land, loving your neighbor, and turning the other cheek. Remember, Jesus defended the whore, and despised the money-changers.

If the Republicans were truly the party of Lincoln, they might have my vote. But not since Eisenhower sent troops to Central High in Little Rock have the Republicans been on the side of African-Americans.

So what are the Republicans truly about? They’re not about the lofty ideals of fiscal responsibility, free markets and morality. Republicans are about preserving privilege. For well-off Americans and big business, Republicans promise that no one will share their wealth. And for the white working class, Republicans promise that they will not have to share power with anyone who doesn’t think like them, or look like them.

The Republicans of today are an alliance of the wealthy and the scared. The wealthy get the scared to vote with them by appealing to their fears. That’s all.

One day, if the Republicans do become a party of preserving values instead of privilege, they might have my vote. We might have a true choice. But today, we have no choice. The Democrats, for better or for worse, are the only party who come close to representing the interests of the diverse American majority.

Dan Charnas
Journalist, New York, NY
www.dancharnas.com

That's. What. You. Get.

The U.S. House of Representatives just rejected Bush's bailout plan, 228 to 205. The revolt was led largely by members of the President's own party.

That's what you get when you elect Republicans on the false pretense that they're going to cut spending from big government and cut taxes for the little guy.

What they end up doing is driving up spending for military excursions and corporate tax breaks, cutting any kind of regulations that would restrict growth for the sake of our overall economic safety, and then borrowing money from China to finance it all.

Bill Clinton may have been a whore, but at least when he left office this country was solvent.

Bush, on the other hand, reminds me of a frat boy who spent his allowance on beer and then begs his Daddy for more.

Now the Republicans who promised their constituents a legacy of slim, efficient government are wetting their pants.

Why Obama hasn't condensed his argument down to this — calling out the Republicans for their political hypocrisy, this Big Lie — is beyond me.

"John" - a reflection on Debate #1

When I heard it, I winced a bit.

"Good to see you, John," Barack Obama said.

The microphones barely picked it up as the two candidates shook hands at the start of tonight's debate.

Oooh, I thought. That was a bit familiar. Maybe a bit disrespectful? Not "Senator McCain"? Doesn't Barack Obama want to be called "Senator Obama," after all?

Then, as the debate continued, and Obama continued to refer to his opponent by his first name — John, John, John — I realized this was not a sign of offhand arrogance on the part of Obama. It was strategy. That it alarmed me at all was a sign of why he needed to do it.

Our society expects that certain folks are entitled to formality and respect. Formality is something that we give our superiors and our elders. But it has also been something that — historically, at the very least — white Americans have felt entitled to from those Americans who are not.

Barack Obama is, in that sense, an upstart. He jumped the line in so many ways. He jumped the line as a Democrat. He jumped the line as a Senator. But primarily, he jumped the line as a nonwhite male. And there he is, onstage, opposite Senator John McCain, the old lion of the Senate, appearing as an equal.

Remember Michael Richards' rant? Remember his reaction to Black hecklers who had the temerity to interrupt his funny? Did he assail them for their behavior? No, he attacked them for who they were. "Back in the day," he said (I paraphrase), "If you had spoken up, you would've been upside down with a fork up your ass." Or something like that.

Richards was saying: You don't get to do that to me, because of who I am and who you are. That's the Order of things. You are upsetting the Order.

That's what Barack Obama is doing. That's what he represents. That why — even though he supports many of the same lame establishment politics of the Clintons — his impact as a politician is so fundamentally different. He upsets the Order.

And so, Barack Obama says, "John."

He says: I get to be on this stage with you. I am here. And you don't get respect for who you are anymore. You get respect for what you do.

One thing, at least, we can love about the 21st Century.