TROUBL

TROUBL is shutting down. Don’t worry. We not going away forever. The holidays have provided us with a “Moment of Clarity.” We are implementing a renaissance.

2008 is over. 2009 is in. TROUBL is going, but also coming. TROUBL “The Re-up,” coming soon. Stay tuned. Hah!!!

Azul, bleu, blau, синий, sininen, blå, blauw, turchino, biru , नीला, xanh lam, moder, плаво, 파랑 and plavo are an assorted collection of ways to describe the color blue in different languages around the world. Here in America, when referring to Johnson Barnes, the MC better known as “Blu,” there is one key to spelling it right…drop the “e.”

Blu translates for listeners on his Compiled and Collected Mixtape available for download here.

Props to Santo at We Do it Right for the hot mix.

Found at The Smoking Section

They say behind every great man there’s a great woman. In Barack Obama’s case, Michelle has fed his ambition, offered her love and support, raised the girls, and most importantly, she supplies the “gangsta” to the first family.

Questions: Without Michelle, who would Barack be? Should the first lady be paid? Should she have a position in Barack’s cabinent. If so, what? Also, what star would have to align for Michelle to be considered a presidential candidate?

Some look at death and turn the other way. Quite often, when a being looks at death, he considers immediately the death of himself or maybe some relative. But maybe we should consider a greater death that none of us want to confront. The death of a species and the death of civilization. More »

by Minister Paul Scott via Davey D’s.

Now that most of America has finally gotten over the fact that in a few weeks the leader of the free world is going to be a black man, I’ve got a real shocker for y’all and you might wanna sit down for this one…

The man whose birthday that you go in debt celebrating every December 25th…

Well, he was black too! More »

Credited with defining the computer gaming industry of the late 70s and early 80s, and featuring some of the best-known video games of all time, the Atari 2600 was more than a form of entertainment. The black, four switch, “wood veneer” console was a status symbol, bling, a reason to stunt among friends at school . Its $199 retail price in 1977 amounts to more than $600 in today’s terms. So whether you’re a gamer or you simply got game, the console’s floss is now wearable with Nike’s Air Force II Premium Atari 2600s. See them here.

When basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson announced at a press conference in November of 1991 that he’d contracted HIV, he barely understood the virus. Magic made sure to highlight the difference between HIV and AIDS, a distinction he discovered only 15 minutes prior to the press conference. More »

I try to maintain objectivity in my political articles. Even if I do a bad job, I do my best to present the facts in an unbiased manner, and only once they’ve been put down do I follow them with my personal opinions. But the more I read, research and think about the Proposition 8 debacle going on in California, the more I realize there is just no way I can present this subject in a calm and detached way. The whole thing is just so preposterous to me, so absolutely awful, so bigoted and prejudicial and – yes, I’ll say it – Un-American, that I simply cannot say anything about it that doesn’t sound angry. More »

Found at Davey D’s

To Barack Obama from Ralph Nader

Dear Senator Obama,

In your nearly two-year presidential campaign, the words “hope and change,” “change and hope” have been your trademark declarations. Yet there is an asymmetry between those objectives and your political character that succumbs to contrary centers of power that want not “hope and change” but the continuation of the power-entrenched status quo. More »

So we’ve had a little over a week now to get used to the idea of President Barack Obama. The way that transformed from a “wouldn’t it amazing if…” into reality is a great thing to contemplate–not the least of which is because, if you voted for Obama, you’re in the majority. In the America we’ve lived in for the last decade, being all about a guy named Barack Hussein Obama, who runs on a platform of ending a stupid war and treating people with less money more compassionately, has not been the sort of thing that gives you much in common with your neighbors. It’s why I like to talk about football. More »