The G-HAMP Movement

The last month has probably been the hardest through this young life of mine. I choose not to blog anything, because I felt mentally I was not prepared to share myself with anyone. I’ve lost a few good and very important people in my life. The earthquake in Haiti not only took away loved ones, but it also took a huge piece of my childhood and innocence. Although I choose not to identify whom I’ve lost in such a public display I can assure that many can understand where I come from. I’d like to public thank everyone for their support and love and will continue to carry your gratitude.

Now I know recently the news has pulled back the news on Haiti to the point where it’s not even news anymore, but to many families this event is still alive and surreal. Its sad watching these mass graves and families unaware of their loved ones who can never receive a proper burial or “goodbye”, not knowing has been the killer of my people and every phone call received at my house seems to be either bad news or despair. Its situations like this which drives me to continue helping family and friends. I vow to use my time to post as much information possible for those who may need it or for those who are not aware.

With that being said I have information that I’ve battled with for the last few weeks if should share with visitors to the site. I’ve decided to share what I have and let those who are curious or need to know to look up the information themselves. I will being posting a list of people who have been confirmed as dead as a result of the tragic earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12th. This information was sent to me and is in French, if you need a translation google has a very accurate translator.

 translate.google.com/

List of victims in Haiti’s deadly earthquake on January 12, 2010

Please continue to support Haiti, your efforts are appreciated

Text the word “yele” to 501501 for a $5 donation

Text the word “Haiti” to 90999 for a $10 donation

It was a blessed year for 2009. I was able to meet new people, find new opportnities, and grow to become a better individual overall. Still growing which is another blessing in its self so its time for me and everybody else to continue to step their game up in the year 2010.

One of the opportunities I’ve found for the the year 2009 is how much tools we have at our disposle. For example, I have a black-berry phone that helps me keep up with my tasks and events. It alse helps me stay in touch with my ‘dawgs’ on facebook, twitter, and myspace.

If you have a black-berry phone and want to stay in the loop on your facebook or twitter account, check out:

-For Twitter:
http://www.ubertwitter.com
-For Facebook:
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/features/social/facebook.jsp?

These are some great tools to use on your black-berry to stay connected to your family, friends, and meeting other people.

In 2009, the G-HAMP organization threw pool parties raising money for student’s college tuition. And completed numerous projects under the G-HAMP Apparel brand for clients needing t-shirts for their organizations. This year we plan on having the G-HAMP Apparel website up, giving potential clients and customers easier access to check out our products, post comments, and see more of what the G-HAMP brand has to offer.

Stay tuned and stay humbled….

God Bless,
George H. (G-HAMP CEO)

The day to day work schedule can be very difficult. Especially when you have a family to take care of. I remember growing up seeing single parents working 9-5 schedules, than coming home to do another 9 to 5 taking care of their kids. One can’t imagine the day to day stress a person goes through where a person can feel exhausted, burned out, tired, and in most cases very angry. Growing up, my father never worked less than 2 jobs a day. He would work from early in the morning until early afternoon. Take about an hour worth of rest. Than work the afternoon until almost midnight. His work schedule is like that til this day. With his work schedule, you would think he’d be a grumpy old man…he’s not. People I’ve grown to know who go thru day to day struggle you’d think they’d be misserable and angry…but they’re not.

We need to stay thankful no matter the situations we’re currently in. Some of our situations can be more extreme than the next man, but we all go thru some form of struggle that can consume our humility. My pops, though working 16 plus hours a day doing manual labor, he comes home to a beautiful wife for 30+ years, a roof over his head, and has the greatest kids on earth . A single parent works all day and picks up her kids from school or dare care to feed, nurture, and discipline them with getting little next to no rest. Through-out the situation, her kids are well fed and growing healthy. She has great family and friends that lend a helping a hand. And she’s able to raise her kids in a safe, loving home.

One of the things that keeps me at peace is knowing that there’s good people out there who enjoy giving back. Blake Mycoskie has a shoe company called TOMS Shoes. For every shoe purchase, another pair of shoes goes to a child in a developing country who’s badly in need of a simple pair of shoes. So when you go to work on your daily hustle, be thankful you have a nice pair of shoes to walk around in, clothes on your back, and a roof over your head. A lot of people in this world don’t have that same luxury.

Top Five

1. Drake – Best I’ve ever had
2. Keri Hilson – Knock You Down
3. Young Money – Every Girl
4. Jeremih – Birthday Sex
5. Jamie Foxx Feat. T-Pain – Blame It

These are the top five “Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay” songs on the radio this week according to Billboard. These are club bangers, I’ve played that Drake song in my head like a million times and he’s a very talented musician/artist that can get the party started like no other. But let’s take a little deeper look at the lyrics, the words of the song. I’ve researched all of the lyrics of these songs and all of them are sexually explicit. None talk about being in committed relationships except Keri Hilson and she’s cohabitating in her song. They never sing about the consequences of the actions, the babies not cared for, souls being drained or the sexually transmitted diseases being contracted. Why did they choose to sing about that?

* African Americans account for 48% of new HIV infections
* AIDS is the leading cause of death for African American women aged 25 to 34
* At least half of new infections are among people under the age of 25.
*70% of Black women are single.
*57% of black children are raised in single parents homes

Now are we singing the right songs? With stats like that facing us, I would surmise we are not. In 2008 we had in historical event, the first ever black president was elected to office. It was a crowing moment, but we can’t take our eye off what is important. If I could lower the single parent percentage from 57% to 26%, maybe we could have had a black president a decade earlier. If I could lower the infection of sisters being infected by HIV, we could in theory guarantee that there will be more Secretary of States who will be black women.

It makes me wonder about the disconnect between our popular artists songs and the reality of black people lives in America. If they were to really write songs about what we needed, what would be the title of some of those songs? “Married and Committed”, Being a Father no matter what” would be hits in urban America. There is room for conscience music. But you have to wonder about individuals who will give you songs about pleasing themselves, but never talked about the consequences of their choices made by them and others. This is irresponsible selfish lifestyle is direct result of our alarming HIV infection rates. Sleeping with some without a condom is a choice, not caring about your own HIV status is a choice, not caring for your child is a choice, listening to certain music is a choice.

Whenever I bring up this subject, my cohorts say “Man is there is no positive music”. Well here are the five songs that I find inspirational about black culture and life in general.

1. Black Is – Fertile Ground
2. You – Fertile Ground
3. In Due Time – Outkast
4. Liberation – Outkast
5. The People – Common

Some of these songs are from artist that we know and some you may not know, but they address common issues in the black community and all of our cultural differences. I find it hard to believe that artist would promote social irresponsibility through there music in the midst of our deteriorating human capital. I don’t need racist white people to call me a nigger, brothers do that everyday to one another by there treatment of each other. There was an outrage when Don Imus called the girls of the Rutgers basketball team nappy headed hoes, but I’m pretty sure those girls have danced to songs in clubs that called them worse, created by black hip-hop artists. Why the uproar when a white guys says something and we don’t bat an eye when some one from the same struggle calls me the same thing?

We control whether or not we reach the pinnacle of success, we have to make better choices to reach that pinnacle. We can’t keep condoning destructive practices and people who celebrate those practices while trying to pull ourselves up, it’s a zero sum game. It’s time to start playing this game with positive numbers.

I came through an interesting blog entry by online radio personality and community activist MC Spice. MC Spice is the executive director of the Boston-based nonprofit Man-Up Movement and an alleged former gang member. Man-Up provides, among other things, mental health counseling for individuals affected by trauma and believes it should be applied to neighborhoods following a shooting. I had a pretty interesting blog entry I wanted to share, but after reading what Spice had to say I felt like i needed to share it with you all. I felt it went along the line of my blog entry of last week “Rap Sucks“. (By the way Jay-Z dropped “DOA” the same day as my blog its like we think alike lol). But as I promised to you all the genius words of Spice Via his Facebook notes

BUSINESS ON BLAST! – Jammin’ 945

“EVERYBODY is up on game about Hip-Hop Culture. The culture has brought together more youth from all parts of the world more than any religion ever did. Some of the crooked demons at Clear Channel Radio and other radio companies, including Radio One (sorry, no props because you’re black) are GUILTY of FIRST…DENYING the airplay of Hip-Hop music when we were in our prime during the golden years. They would only play Hip-Hop on the weekends, or late at night on some boody deeay’s cornball show were the CORNY PROGRAM DIRECTOR WHO DIDN’T EVEN LIKE RAP WAS IN CHARGE OF THE SONGS THE BOOY DEEJAY WOULD PLAY!

Now everybody wants to jump on the rap bandwagon and disrespect a culture that took early thirty year to build. The record labels were in cahoot, too. Paying modern-day SLAVES to be OVERSEERS of HIP-HOP and FIDDLER their way into the music mainstream with messages of self-hate and bigotry; promotion of prostitution (I mean, just because your MAMA sells it don’t mean YOU have to); and gang life. Those who paved the way were overlooked. Platinum-plus Public Enemy would soon play the back seat to songs like: “A B**** is a B****” and “Party and Bull****” and it wouldn’t matter if you’re platinum or not, just as long as you’re selling what w want you to sell.

Then the radio stations began to look or talent who didn’t COME from the culture, didn’t REPRESENT the culture and who could gve a CRAP about the culture. The powers that be at the radio stations knew that they weren’t going to give some black deejay who grew UP on Hip-Hop one of their stanky leg jobs, so when Pepsi, Coke, Burger King and McDonald’s bought into their so-called “Number One for Hip-Hop” watered-down, fake slogan, they hired white deejays, threw their hats on backwards and started reading every Hip-Hop magazine they could find so their radio robots would “look the part”.

If you think for one second Jmmin’ 945 really wanted to play black music, you have lost your mind. Listen any day and hear how the “fun” rap songs are slowly creeping into the darkness. See, FUN rap songs are Hip-Hop BASED (Peace, Unity, Love and Havin’ FUN is Hip-Hop’s four spiritual principles). You are hearing more Amy Whinehouse and the return of Brittney Spears with her cornball sounding “If You Seek A-my” (F-U-C-K ME)…yep, that’s EXACTLY what they’re leaking into your children’s head.

No that white radio has gotten your attention, is it a wonder or children are now smoking and popping EVERYTHING? They even wear SKULL AND CROSSBONES and HATE JESUS. Never thought rap music would produce black and latino skinheads. I mean…skull and CROSSBONES? TatOOED? Wow. I charge you, Jammin’ 945, for caling yourselves “number one for Hip-Hop” when you have done NOTHING for the culture. NOTHING. Man Up and go back to Rock and Roll. You have lost your place in Hip-Hop Culture and should destroy your whole station and rebuild with a sound that best suits your attitude on black urban living…EASY LISTENING”

This is real talk. And I must end real talk with the REALEST song out RIGHT NOW.

Infinite (adjective): Having no boundaries or limits. -The American Heritage Dictionary

How does it feel to know that you can do anything you put your mind to? Like if you didn’t hit the mega-bucks playing the lottery, you know you’ll still be wealthy some day. Or if your stocks sunk after investing thousands of dollars, you know you’ll still get a return on that investment sooner or (rather than) later. Or if your date canceled at the last minute to go to a dinner and movie with you, but you stayed confident in getting another date. My friends its like the old saying, “when one door shuts, another door opens”.

In the “Art of War” by Sun Tzu says, “Thus it is said that one who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements”. There are tons of ways to make money in a dismal economy. Lots of ways to burn fat for a person trying to lose weight. Countless ways to earn your degree online if you couldn’t attend a school in person. The opportunities we have out our disposable are endless.

“How do you know” you may ask. First, you believe in God because through Him all things are possible. Second, get up off your gluteus and take action. “Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits” -Thomas Edison. As human-beings, we tend to get anxious and lose patience. The more patient we are seeking opportunities, the more success we’ll have seizing on them.

Remember when rap was “our story” it reflected on the hard times and struggles of us in our communities. I remember when I first heard that members of The Fugees were Haitian. It was at that point I felt a personal connection with Hip Hop. Like wow these guys are talking about the same things I went through growing. I still listen to the album til this day and that’s 13 yrs later. That longevity, that’s what rap was all about in back in the days. I believe that any album released between 91’ and 99’ is still being played. These classics have gone through cassette, cd’s, to MP3’s and only God knows in the future.

BUT, NOW I don’t even know what I’m listening to. There are times where I’m not even sure what radio station I have on anymore, because these songs sound like pop music. I can’t even remember the last meaningful rap song that made bop my head and say “yeah for real that’s the truth right there”. Now-a-days it seems like hip hop is now just house music. Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy a little techno and a little house, but I like variety and I’m definetly not feeling that in the music.

I dunno how someone “tasting like sugar” applies to me trying to survive during a recession. The only time I hear a reference to the recession is probably when a rapper says that they can’t get an 09’ Bentley so they’ll get an 08’ instead. Rappers, mainly the mainstream ones, are nothing but advertisement boards for things that don’t up lift the community at all. A rapper talks about spinning rims than 10 cars on the road with spinners. They talk about their $500 Louis Vutton kicks than next thing you know everyone is rocking Louie (fake or on wholesale). Rappers are now infatuated with “ballin” and how tight their “swagga” is.

Here’s an interesting quote I picked up from a Facebook friend. It reflected on the change in Hip Hop:

” The Terms “BALLIN’ & SWAG” have gone to f*ckin far! Itz Getting Crazy Out Here, People Want There Image To Be Perceived As Lavish!! What Happen To Ni&&az Saying “Im Maintaining” GUCCI, PRADA & LOUIS With No Whip? Taking Cabs & Getting Rides. What The F*ck Is Happening To The Black Community!!! Give Back…”

I have no idea what I’m hearing on the radio, and neither do a lot of people I know understand. These rappers are trendsetter and aren’t selling hope but false hope. And putting black men and women in debt as the try to follow the new trend rappers are identifying themselves with today. I’m not saying that there is nothing wrong with looking like a gentlemen or a diva that’s cool. But if you’re trying to catch to the Jones and making minimum wage you need to fall back a little and evaluate trying to flaunt like a rapper.

Hip Hop I can’t identify with you anymore. I think back to when Common rapped about H.E.R. Now she’s seemed to have rebounded, but only as a vengeful woman who is out to hurt those she’s come across that hurt her. And that’ exactly what Hip Hop is doing now its not uplifting anymore there are no morals to a story. There is no Slick Rick, Tupac, or a Biggie. Yea we have a few talented rappers Jay-Z, Nas, and Eminem (just to name a VERY FEW), but for how long. How long will it be until they go off course and follow this downwards spiral or aren’t even significant in music. I can’t stand seeing Lil’ Wayne and Kanye West being named rappers or lyricist of the year. Hip Hop is going against the grain and foundation it was built on and is on the brink of collapsing. Honestly rap isn’t humble anymore, it just SUCKS.

“I might’ve failed to mention that the shit was creative
But once the man got you well he altered the native
Told her if she got an energetic gimmick
That she could make money, and she did it like a dummy
Now I see her in commercials, she’s universal
She used to only swing it with the inner-city circle
Now she be in the burbs lickin rock and dressin hip
And on some dumb shit, when she comes to the city” -Common

Queen Ifrica has a great chorus to her song “keep it to yourself” which goes “Yu feel like a bad man (Keep it to yu self) Doan bring it to Jamaican (Keep it to yu self)…. Wi can’t tek no more slackness.” I felt like this chorus was important to open with, it reflects on a lot of the things that have been going on in our community. I don’t if I was oblivious to what was going on around, but warm days aren’t as enjoyable as when I was young. I remember going out in my neighborhood and actually playing till the street light come on, well with my pops when the first light started blinking. Now the laughter and cheers from the heat are disturbed with the screams of a gun piercing through the flesh of sons, mothers, and infants.

I really don’t understand where the minds of our youth are these days. Our history reads we were beaten, hung, raped, and abused during and post slavery. We were owned and sold and put on display as if we were an animal. And now-a-days these kids have enslaved themselves to a STREET NAME. Not a physical person or thing, but merely a name of a street or a project. How someone could “hold down” a project which was pretty much set up to hold someone down deprive them of even thinking about advancing.

For a few weeks I’ve thought about what I wanted to say regarding the stream of violence. It’s like some people choose not to speak on the community genocide, violence against one another lead by adults, but using children as the pawn in their game. These unruly events are really uncalled for. For example the story about the 2 yr old that received a flesh wound from 16 yr old shooter that was shooting random shots into a convenience store. Than there’s a mother being shot and her own child witnessed it. I mean really where does end. There was a point where I felt like maybe people weren’t mad enough, like no cared until it hit home.

But recently after the murder of young Soheil Turner and the mother of three, I’ve seen an outpour of people coming together to do something. With Soheil Turner it was great to see that people were stepping forward and making it known that this is allowed in there community. And as crazy as it sounds I was so proud to here how a crowd of 100 (maybe even 20 it changes) chased down an alleged murder, although it wasn’t right person it showed people were mad, and fed up with these so called thugs controlling their well being.

It’s great that the local police are finding ways to keep people safe from being labeled a snitch or a rat (yeah the statement is sad, but people have a reputation to uphold I guess). No longer should we become imprisoned by the people who are imprisoned mentally with street names or territory, but let us be the one to put things into action. I don’t have all the answer and if I knew how I’d love to put into action ways to save our street, but it takes a community and a nation to bring change and impact to the streets of Boston. I do my small part working with the youth, but I know one person can’t tell a youth the do’s and don’ts when there are about five friends who try to counter my words. But it is in faith I hope that my words do have meaning and had set up a foundation.

Honestly someone is going to read this today and do something, and even make a change in there life, and the reality of it all someone else probably didn’t even finish hearing the truth, or cared much but its okay I hope for their sake they turn around and bring forth the change. Till than “Yu feel like a bad man (Keep it to yu self) Doan bring it to Boston (Keep it to yu self)…. Wi can’t tek no more slackness.”

“What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better.” -Bruce Lee

When we look at some of our favorite athletes or our favorite competitors in a specific arena, we say “wow they’re amazing. No one (or group) can stop them”. Though that may not be true, you can not doubt the skill level these competitors have reached with such accolades being praised on their profession. We look at Michael Jordan being the best ever to play the game of basketball. We look at Muhammad Ali to be the greatest boxer of all time. We say Abraham Lincoln is the best president the United States has ever had. We say that there will never be another woman that can match the amount of success Oprah has reached. You may say that, but there’s always someone being told that they will never be a success in a particular profession like the previous individuals mentioned and they mine as well ‘hang it up’. But now, you see people like Lebron James, Tyra Banks, Barack Obama, Floyd Mayweather Jr. making huge success in their profession like the previous individuals mentioned before where they can be considered the “unbeatable”. Ladies and gentlemen I have news for ya, YOU can be considered the unbeatable as well.

As we grow and reach certain points in our lives, we tend to limit ourselves in adamantly saying, “I can’t…”. Though it may be true for the moment, know that its only “for the moment”; temporary as you will say. In our universe “can’t” will become “can”. In the famous words of Barack Obama’s campaign, “Yes we can”. As well as “don’t” becomes “do”, “I ain’t” becomes “I am”. A boy becomes a man. A girl becomes a woman. To the same affect, a poor man becomes a rich man. An unhealthy person becomes abundant with good health. A sad person becomes a happy person.

One of my favorite quotes(paraphrased) from Frederick Douglas is, “You get nothing without struggle…so maintain the struggle”. As “average” everyday living citizens of our nation, we go through obstacles one can’t imagine nor believe. At times we can feel hopeless and end up taking the easy way out…by giving up. Giving up on our dreams, goals, accomplishments, strengths, friendships, and so forth and so on. This is definitely NOT the answer. The answer is to know that you’re still alive and breathing. The answer is to recognise it, accept it, and grow by accepting and believing you can overcome it.

My mother battles rheumatoid arthritis every day of her life. When she was diagnosed, she needed a cane to walk, wrist-bands to hold things, restless nights from pain in her joints. She was going through things a human-being shouldn’t have to grow through. Years later, she didn’t need a cane to walk, she didn’t need wrist-bands to hold things, and she has good night sleeps that are pain-free. She still has rheumatoid arthritis, but she’s overcame it; it has no power over her. How did she do it you may ask? Not easy, but very simple. She changed her eating routines and got on a strict diet, did swimming exercises that loosened up her joints, and she simply…believed.

I started this blog post with a Bruce Lee quote, its only right that I end it with a Bruce Lee quote lol. This quote simply just sums up what I’ve talked about in this blog and its true meaning. “With adversity you are shocked to higher levels, much like a rain storm that is so violent, but yet afterwards all plants grow.”

Link to check out:
http://www.enbrel.com/ra/understanding-ra.jsp?channel=GOSEA&subchannel=SRAC

references from blog post:
“Striking Thoughts” Bruce Lee’s ‘Wisdom for Daily Living’
“Art of War” by Sun Tzu

Check out this music video by Robin Thicke “Can You Believe”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgJOs9LR_IM