kanye west american rapper

Kanye Omari West born June 8, 1977 is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and Janet Jackson. His style of production originally used pitched-up vocal samples from soul songs incorporated with his own drums and instruments. However, subsequent productions saw him broadening his musical palette and expressing influences encompassing '70s R&B, baroque pop, trip hop, arena rock, folk, alternative, electronica, synth-pop, and classical music.
West released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004, his second album Late Registration in 2005, his third album Graduation in 2007, his fourth album 808s & Heartbreak in 2008, and his fifth album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in 2010. His five albums, all of which have gone platinum, have received numerous awards, including a cumulative fourteen Grammys, and critical acclaim. All have been very commercially successful, with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy becoming his fourth consecutive #1 album in the U.S. upon release.West also runs his own record label GOOD Music, home to artists such as John Legend, Common and Kid Cudi.West's mascot and trademark is "Dropout Bear," a teddy bear which has appeared on the covers of three of his five albums as well as various single covers and musicvideos.About.com ranked Kanye West #8 on their "Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers" list.On May 16, 2008, Kanye West was crowned by MTV as the year's #1 "Hottest MC in the Game." 17 December 2010, Kanye West was voted as the MTV Man of the Year by MTV.
Contents
* 1 Early life
* 2 Music career
o 2.1 Early career (1996–2003)
o 2.2 The College Dropout (2004)
o 2.3 Late Registration (2005)
o 2.4 Graduation (2007)
o 2.5 Glow in the Dark Tour, 808s & Heartbreak (2008–09)
o 2.6 My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Watch the Throne (2010–present)
* 3 Personal life
o 3.1 Relationships
o 3.2 Mother's death
* 4 Musical style and influences
* 5 Other ventures
o 5.1 Business ventures
o 5.2 Philanthropy
* 6 Controversies
o 6.1 Media
+ 6.1.1 Award shows
o 6.2 Legal issues
* 7 Discography
* 8 Awards and nominations
* 9 References
* 10 External links
Early life
Kanye West was born in Atlanta, Georgia, where he lived with his parents. When he was three years old, his parents divorced, and he and his mother moved to Chicago, Illinois. father was Ray West, a former Black Panther who was one of the first black photojournalists at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and is now a Christian counselor. West's mother, Dr. Donda West, was a Professor of English at Clark Atlanta University, and the Chair of the English Department at Chicago State University before retiring to serve as West's manager. He was raised in a middle-class background, attending Polaris High School in suburban Oak Lawn, Illinois after living in Chicago. asked about his grades in high school, West replied, "I got A's and B's. And I'm not even frontin'".
West attended art classes at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, and also enrolled at Chicago State University, but dropped out to focus on his music career. While attending school, West produced for local artists. He later gained fame by producing hit singles for major hip hop/R&B artists, including Jay-Z, Talib Kweli, Cam'ron, Paul Wall, Common, Mobb Deep, Jermaine Dupri, Scarface, The Game, Alicia Keys, Janet Jackson, John Legend among others. He also "ghost-produced" for his mentor Deric Angelettie, according to his song "Last Call" and the credits of Nas' "Poppa Was a Playa".
Music career
Early career (1996–2003)
Kanye West's first career productions came on Chicago rapper Grav's 1996 debut album Down to Earth. West produced eight tracks on the album. While the album did not attract much attention and would be the only album released by Grav, West would soon be producing for higher profile artists. In 1998-1999 he produced for well known artists such as Jermaine Dupri, Foxy Brown, Goodie Mob, and the group Harlem World.
West got his big break in the year 2000 however when he began to produce for artists on Roc-a-Fella Records. He produced the well received Jay-Z song "This Can't Be Life" off of the album The Dynasty: Roc La Familia. West would later state that to create the beat for "This Can't Be Life" he sped up the drum beat from Dr. Dre's song "Xxplosive".
After producing for Jay-Z earlier, West’s sound was featured heavily on Jay-Z's critically acclaimed album The Blueprint, released on September 11, 2001. His work was featured on the lead single "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)," "Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)" and a diss track against Nas and Mobb Deep named "Takeover"; West has worked with Mobb Deep and Nas since the track's release
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christian slater box office success

Christian Michael Leonard Slater born August 18, 1969 is an American actor and voice over artist. He made his film debut with a small role in The Postman Always Rings Twice before playing a leading role in the 1985 film The Legend of Billie Jean. He then played a monk's apprentice alongside Sean Connery in The Name of the Rose before gaining much recognition for his role in the cult film Heathers which is considered his breakthrough.
In the 1990s Slater featured in many big budget films including Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Broken Arrow and Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles. Since 2000 Slater has combined work in the film business with television, including appearances in The West Wing and Alias.
Slater was married to Ryan Haddon in 2000 before separating in 2005, they had two children together. Slater has also had widely publicised brushes with the law, including being sentenced to three months in jail for assault in 1997.
Contents
* 1 Early life
* 2 Early career
* 3 Box office success
* 4 Since 2000
* 5 Personal life
o 5.1 Charity work
* 6 Awards
* 7 Filmography
o 7.1 Television
* 8 References
* 9 External links
Early life
Slater was born in New York City. The son of Mary Jo Slater (née Lawton), an acting agent turned casting executive and producer, and Michael Hawkins (né Thomas Knight Slater), an actor who is also known as Michael Gainsborough. Slater has a maternal half-brother, Ryan Slater, who is also an actor. Slater attended the Dalton School, the Professional Children's School and the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.
Early career
Following a run on the ABC soap opera Ryan's Hope, Slater made his Broadway debut as the lisping Winthrop Paroo opposite Dick Van Dyke in the 1980 revival of The Music Man.Additional Broadway credits include Copperfield, Merlin, Macbeth, Side Man, and The Glass Menagerie. In addition he has performed in London's West End in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Swimming With Sharks.
Slater made his big screen debut in 1985's The Legend of Billie Jean playing Billie Jean’s brother Binx. His first significant role came in The Name of the Rose in 1986 alongside Sean Connery. Slater played Connery's apprentice monk while they investigated a series of murders at a Benedictine abbey. Slater followed this by playing Junior Tucker in Francis Ford Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), Gleaming the Cube (1989) and Beyond the Stars (1989).
Slaters career improved when he played the dark character J.D. in the 1989 film Heathers alongside Winona Ryder. Heathers was billed as the teen film of the late '80s, and Slater's performance drew comparison with a young Jack Nicholson.[4] After Heathers, Slater had offers to play more troubled youths, including as a rebellious teen in Pump Up the Volume (1990) and a wild gunman in Young Guns II (1990), in which Slater acted alongside Emilio Estevez and Kiefer Sutherland.
Box office success
In 1991 Slater was cast as Will Scarlett in the Hollywood big budget remake of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves alongside Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman and Alan Rickman. The film was a commercial success, taking US$390 million worldwide. With Slater being a big Star Trek fan, he accepted a minor role in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, shortly after playing Charlie Luciano in the crime drama Mobsters.
In 1993, Slater tried to expand his film genre, playing opposite Marisa Tomei in Untamed Heart and playing Clarence Worley in True Romance, which was written by Quentin Tarantino. In review of True Romance Roger Ebert awarded the movie 3 stars out of 5 and commented, 'the energy and style of the movie are exhilarating. Christian Slater has the kind of cocky recklessness the movie needs.'
The part as the interviewer in Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) came about after his friend River Phoenix, who originally had the role, died. Slater subsequently donated his earnings from the film to Phoenix's favorite charities. Slater played Riley Hale in the big budget John Woo film Broken Arrow (1996), which also starred John Travolta, before appearing in the big budget flop Hard Rain.
Since 2000
Since 2000 Slater has mixed TV work with film, appearing in the successful The West Wing and Alias TV productions, but also being part of Hollywood films including Bobby and 3000 Miles to Graceland. He has also worked as a voice over artist in productions, including the character of 'Pips' in the successful Australian animated film FernGully: The Last Rainforest, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and TV documentaries including Prehistoric Planet and Dinosaur Planet. Slater also voiced the character John Watson a.k.a. "Wonko the Sane" in BBC Radio 4's production of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Slater has signed on to join The Forgotten, ABC's new crime drama from producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The show premiered on Tuesday, September 22 (leading out of the Dancing with the Stars results show). The Forgotten revolves around the Forgotten Network, a team of amateur sleuths who work on cases involving unidentified victims.
He is set to star in the action films Soldiers of Fortune, with Sean Bean, and The River Sorrow, with Ray Liotta. Both films co-star Slater with Ving Rhames.
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Book Trailer: Scott Poulson-Bryant's The VIPs

The first trailer for the upcoming novel THE VIPs, by Scott Poulson-Bryant, author of HUNG.

Adisa Banjoko: Chess, Race, Class & the Urban Mind

HHCF: Chess, Race, Class & the Urban Mind

Hip-Hop Chess Federation founder Adisa Banjoko talks about misconceptions of Hip-Hop subculture and history against the backdrop of mainstream ideas of urban youth.

Why the NBA and NFL Players Unions Need to Pay Attention to What’s Happening in Wisconsin

Saturday Edition

Why the NBA and NFL Players Unions Need to Pay Attention to What’s Happening in Wisconsin
by Mark Anthony Neal

All eyes were on Carmelo Anthony recently, as the NBA star got his wish to be traded to the New York Knicks. In the backdrop of this story is the fact that Anthony would only agree to be traded to the Knicks if they signed him to a contract extension—one that that had to be signed before the NBA’s current collective bargaining agreement ended in June. Collective bargaining agreements are also the minds of NFL players, where they and NFL owners face a March 3rd deadline to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement, before the owners will lock the players out of their places of work.

As the influence and prestige of organized labor continues to wane, professional sports unions (and Hollywood writers' unions) have too often, and unfortunately so, become the face of organized labor. That changed recently when the Wisconsin State legislature presented a bill with the aim of limiting the collective bargaining powers of public workers in the State. For the past two weeks public workers in Wisconsin have taken to the streets to protest the proposed changes, generating a level of solidarity for organized labor that has not been witnessed in decades. As historian Mark Naison noted, the presence of 70, 000 workers in front of the Wisconsin State capitol “is as improbable as Black students sitting in at lunch counters in 35 cities throughout the South.”

Given the historic confluence of recent events—the protests in State capitols in Wisconsin and Ohio are clearly taking energy from the images that we saw in Tahiri Square—the NFL and NBA players unions should be concerned with being on the right side of history, in what may become a new labor movement in this country. It is critical for players to see the connections between their struggles and those of everyday American workers.

That the average American has little regard for the labor strife among groups of professional athletes, including baseball players, who will likely make more money in a year, than most American will make in a lifetime, should not be a surprise. To their credit, professional ballplayers have often tried to downplay their labor concerns (Antonio “can’t remember the name of my kids” Cromartie notwithstanding) knowing full well that such complaints curry little favor for fans struggling to pay their own bills. Such constraint is particularly palpable for NBA and NFL players, where a significant amount of fans might believe that the leagues’ Black players should be grateful for the social status that their athletic careers afford them.

Yet there are comparisons that can be made between workers struggling to retain their collective bargaining powers and professional athletes trying to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement that allows them to retain their hard earned benefits. The same social and political forces that want to take away the ability of public workers to bargain collectively are the same that want to limit the influence of players’ unions. In both instances, at the root of such efforts is to depress the wages of workers.

Often obscured in the visibility of highly paid professional athletes is that they are in fact laborers; they work for the benefit of others’ profits be it team owners, the networks that carry the NBA and NFL, or the companies that use players’ images in advertising. In a strict technical sense, they are exploited labor, as is the case with most working Americans who are underpaid and undervalued, but given how well professional athletes are financially compensated, most miss that fact. Indeed, many of us would love to be “exploited” for $3.4 million a year (the estimated average salary for an NBA player).

The owners’ goals in the new collective agreements with the NFL and the NBA are to bring down labor costs and to increase profits, a process that was begun when both leagues created salary caps more than a decade ago. In theory salary caps control labor cost, but there are no such limits on the profits that owners et al can make from these new labor agreements. Indeed, NFL league owners are pushing for an 18 game season that would generate even more profits at the expense of players’ longevity.

Not surprisingly concerns for cutting budgets is at the forefront of attempts in Wisconsin and others states, to limit the collective bargaining power of public workers. The current push is born out of the current fiscal crisis that the nation faces, but attempts to limit the bargaining power of American workers have been trending for decades.

As Naison observes, “the rise of organized labor, from the mid 1930’s to the mid 1950’s, coincided with a significant improvement in the standard of living of all American workers, whether or not they were in unions.” What we have witnessed over the past 30 years, regardless of the state of the American economy, is American workers giving back many of the gains they derived from organized labor, dovetailing with a redistribution of wealth from the American working class to the wealthiest Americans.

Of course some view professional athletes as being a part of that wealthiest segment of Americans, which is why players union will never garner significant support for their own labor struggles, not matter how legitimate

Perhaps the more thoughtful tact for the leaders of the NFL and NBA players unions is to speak out in support of the workers in states like Wisconsin, Indiana and New Jersey and for some of the most visible players in their leagues to use their celebrity to speak to the importance of collective bargaining rights for all American workers. Such solidarity would not be a simple gesture, but the strongest articulation by professional athletes that they see their fates as inevitably linked to those who are ultimately responsible for their fame and their wealth.

Contemporary athletes have been on sidelines for far too many critical issues that we confront in this country. With attacks on collective bargaining rights in their sports as well as in American statehouses and the offices of the wealthiest Americans (shout to the Koch brothers) they have no excuse not to be in the game, as it were.

jamie oliver life and career

James Trevor "Jamie" Oliver MBE born 27 May 1975 sometimes known as The Naked Chef, is an English chef, restaurateur and media personality, known for his food-focused television shows, cookbooks and more recently his campaign against the use of processed foods in national schools. He strives to improve unhealthy diets and poor cooking habits in the United Kingdom and the United States. Jamie Oliver's speciality is Italian cuisine, although he has a broad international repertoire.
Content
* 1 Life and career
* 2 Personal life
* 3 Notable career milestones
* 4 Charity and campaigning
* 5 Advertising
* 6 Television shows
* 7 Other television appearances
* 8 Live shows
* 9 Controversy and criticism
* 10 Scarlet Division
* 11 Pop culture
* 12 Books
* 13 References
* 14 Further reading
* 15 External links
Life and care
Jamie Oliver was brought up in Clavering, Essex, England. His parents ran a pub, "The Cricketers", where he used to practise in the kitchen. He was educated at Newport Free Grammar School. He left school at 16 without any qualifications to attend Westminster Catering College. His first job was as a pastry chef at Antonio Carluccio's Neal's Yard restaurant, where he first gained experience of Italian cuisine. Oliver then moved to The River Café, Fulham, as a sous chef, where he was noticed by the BBC in 1999. That year, his show The Naked Chef debuted and his cookbook became a number one best-seller in the UK. That same year, Oliver was invited to prepare lunch for then Prime Minister Tony Blair at No. 10 Downing Street.
Personal life
In July 2000, Oliver married former model Juliette Norton.The couple met in 1993 and have four children: Poppy Honey Rosie Oliver (born 18 March 2002), Daisy Boo Pamela Oliver (born 10 April 2003), Petal Blossom Rainbow Oliver (born 3 April 2009) and Buddy Bear Maurice Oliver (born 15 September 2010). Oliver announced the births of the two youngest children on Twitter. The family live in Clavering, Essex. is of partial Sudanese ancestry.
Notable career milestones
In 2000, Oliver became the face of UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's through an endorsement deal worth £2 million a year.
Putting up his house as collateral without telling his wife, Oliver created the Fifteen Foundation in 2002. Each year, 15 young adults who have a disadvantaged background, criminal record or history of drug abuse, are trained in the restaurant business.
In 2003, he was awarded an MBE.
In 2005, he initiated a campaign called "Feed me Better" in order to move British schoolchildren towards eating healthy foods and cutting junk food. As a result, the British government also pledged to address the issue. Delving into politics to push for changes in nutrition resulted in people voting him as the "Most Inspiring Political Figure of 2005," according to a Channel 4 News annual viewer poll.
His emphasis on cooking healthily continued as he created Jamie's Ministry of Food, a television series where Oliver travelled to inspire everyday people in Rotherham, Yorkshire to cook healthy meals. His latest television series is "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" (2009), where he travels to Huntington, West Virginia to change the way Americans eat and address their dependence on fast food.
Oliver's holding company, Sweet As Candy, has made enough profit for Jamie to have been listed on The Sunday Times list of richest Britons under 30.
It was reported in October 2009 that Oliver is in the process of raising $22 million to help fund 30 of his Italian restaurants in Asia.
In December 2009, Oliver received the 2010 TED Prize.
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Charlie Braxton: Why We Must Stand With Workers

from BET.com

Commentary: Why We Must Stand With Workers
by Charlie Braxton

The eyes of the nation need to focus on Madison, Wisconsin, as hundreds of government workers, union members, students, and other supporters gather in protest to Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s economic assault on government workers.

The assault comes in the guise of Scott’s proposed budget repair bill that aims to balance Wisconsin’s budget. This proposal includes requiring state workers to pay more toward their pension and limiting the majority of the workers’ right to collective bargaining (police and firemen are excluded). If enacted, these changes would effectively cripple the power of unions in Wisconsin and severely limit state workers’ ability to fight for better wages in the future.

Early Friday morning, Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly abruptly passed the measure that would strip collective bargaining rights from most public workers. Since the state Senate has yet to vote, the political standoff is far from over.

Although not quite as draconian as Wisconsin’s proposal, similar scenarios have taken place throughout the nation, as the governors of New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, and Florida have all proposed similar budget measures aimed at their state workers’ pocketbooks. For example, New Jersey’s Republican governor, Chris Christie, has outlined a series of deep cuts and changes to the state’s government workers’ pension fund that includes workers paying 30 percent of their health care premium, increasing the amount of their co-pay, and rolling back a 9 percent across-the-board pay increase from 2001. Add this to the modest wages many government workers receive and a sputtering economy and the effects could be devastating.

According to the governors of these embattled states, these drastic measures are necessary in order to balance their respective budgets, save their state’s pension funds, and stave off massive government lay-offs. They bristle at the suggestion that the budget crunch is a convenient excuse to punish the states’ workers, who tend to make up a significant portion of the Democrats' constituency. Moreover, when the governor of a state engages in union-busting activity, what signal does that send to the private sector that traditionally have had no qualms about jettisoning the rights of the American worker?

Remember, many of the people that make up the thousands of government workers from the above-mentioned states (especially in urban areas) are middle-class people of color. We’re talking health care workers, social workers, teachers, etc., many of whom are our friends and family. Also, a large percentage of the people these workers serve are people of color. Any cut in their wages and/or benefits would drastically affect their ability to serve the public. This is why we must stand on the side of the state workers. Not to do so, would be, in my opinion, uncivilized.

Majora Carter: Greening the Ghetto

From TED

In an emotionally charged talk, MacArthur-winning activist Majora Carter details her fight for environmental justice in the South Bronx -- and shows how minority neighborhoods suffer most from flawed urban policy.

Majora Carter redefined the field of environmental equality, starting in the South Bronx at the turn of the century. Now she is leading the local economic development movement across the USA

henry cavill british actor

Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill born 5 May 1983 is a British actor. He has appeared in the films The Count of Monte Cristo and Stardust, and played the role of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, on the Showtime series The Tudors, from 2007 until 2010. He has been cast to play Superman in the 2012 film Superman: Man of Steel.
Contents
* 1 Early life
* 2 Career
* 3 Filmography
* 4 References
* 5 External links
Early life
Cavill was born on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands, the fourth of five boys. His mother, Marianne, worked in a bank, and his father, Colin Cavill, was a stockbroker. He was educated at St. Michael's Preparatory School in Saint Saviour, Jersey before attending Stowe School, a boarding school in Buckinghamshire, England. He began acting in school plays during prep school, has said that if he hadn't become an actor, he would have joined the armyor gone to university to study ancient history or Egyptology.
Career
Cavill had his first film role in Kevin Reynolds' 2002 adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo. He went on to star in Laguna (2001), and afterwards appeared in BBC’s The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2002), the TV movie Goodbye Mr. Chips (2002), and the TV series Midsomer Murders (2003). In 2003 he had a supporting role in I Capture the Castle, followed by Red Riding Hood (2004), Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005), and Tristan & Isolde (2006). He had a minor role alongside Sienna Miller and Ben Barnes in Matthew Vaughn's adaptation of Stardust (2007).
From 2007 to 2010, Cavill had a leading role in Showtime's television series The Tudors as Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. The series was well-received: it was nominated for a Golden Globe in 2007 and won an Emmy in 2008. Cavill credits the show to bolstering his career: "It’s done the most for me to date. [. . .] Now that there's an audience somewhere in America that’s aware of who I am, I have more sell-ability, because of The Tudors."Entertainment Weekly named him the "Most Dashing Duke" and praised his work on The Tudors for displaying "charm, depth and a killer bod".
Cavill had been set to star as Superman in director McG’s 2004 film Superman: Flyby. However, McG pulled out of the project and direction was taken over by director Bryan Singer, who recast Brandon Routh as the lead. Cavill was also the cause of a write-in effort of fans to see him cast as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). The role eventually went to Robert Pattinson. Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series, was outspokenly in favor of Cavill playing the character of Edward Cullen in the Twilight film, calling him her "perfect Edward". By the time production of the movie began, however, Cavill was too old to play the character, and again the role went to Robert Pattinson. In 2005, Cavill was a final contender for the role of James Bond in Casino Royale.The producers and director Martin Campbell were torn between him and Daniel Craig; reportedly Campbell supported Cavill but the producers preferred an older Bond. Craig landed the role. In their December 2005 issue, Empire magazine dubbed Cavill the "Unluckiest Man in Hollywood" for this series of near-misses. reports that he was a contender for Batman in Batman Begins, Cavill confirmed that he never auditioned for nor was offered the role.
In early 2008, Cavill became a model/spokesperson for Dunhill fragrances. The television ad featured a suited-up Cavill walking through the Union Jack flag, before mounting a helicopter. A second television ad featured Cavill driving a car through a deserted London at night, and meeting with a young woman. He starred in director Joel Schumacher's horror film Blood Creek (2008) and in 2009 he had a minor role in Woody Allen’s comedy film Whatever Works.
Director Tarsem Singh cast Cavill in the lead role of Theseus in his mythological, big-budget special effects film Immortals, to be released November 11, 2011.In 2011 Cavill will star alongside Bruce Willis in The Cold Light of Day. On January 30, 2011, it was announced that Cavill had been cast in the role of Clark Kent/Superman in director Zack Snyder's Superman: Man of Steel. Snyder called Cavill "the perfect choice to don the cape and S shield."
Filmography
Film
Year Film Role Notes
2001 Laguna Thomas Aprea Main Role
2002 The Count of Monte Cristo Albert Mondego Main Role
2003 I Capture the Castle Stephen Colley Main Role
2004 Red Riding Hood Hunter Main Role
2005 Hellraiser: Hellworld Mike Main Role
2006 Tristan + Isolde Melot Main Role
2007 Stardust Humphrey Minor Role
2009 Blood Creek Evan Marshall Main Role
Whatever Works Randy James Minor Role
2011 Immortals Theseus Main Role
The Cold Light of Day Will Main Role
2012 Superman: Man of Steel Clark Kent / Superman Main Role
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Hip-Hop as Literature? The Conversation Continues

Minnesota Public Radio
Midmorning Live

Anthology of Rap and Hip-hop

Over the past 30 years rap and hip-hop have emerged as a powerful and influential cultural force. Midmorning examines the power and the poetry of rap music, from the "old school" to the present day.

Guests

* Adam Bradley: Associate professor of English and author of the "Anthology of Rap.

* Mark Anthony Neal: Professor of Black Popular Culture in the Department of African and African American Studies at Duke University.

* Toki Wright: Professor at McNally Smith School of Music in St. Paul, MN and professional rapper/hip-hop artist.

Hip-Hop Speaks--"American Workers Vs Multi-Billionaires": A Video by Jasiri X

from Jasiri X

Our latest video "American Workers Vs Multi-Billionaires" was filmed on location in Madison, Wisconsin, where thousands of hard working Americans came together in unity to fight back against a Governor bought and paid for by Billionaires to break up Unions and deny workers collective bargaining and a living wage. "American Workers Vs Multi-Billionaires" was produced by Cynik Lethal and directed by Paradise Gray.

LYRICS

Scott Walker works for multi billionaires
John Boehner works for multi billionaires
while corporations get billions in welfare
and millions in this country been out of work for years

Sarah Palin works for multi billionaires
American workers vs multi billionaires
they wanna end social security and medicare
while millions in this country don't have a dime to spare

Can main street get a bailout
Tell the president our checks weren't mailed out
Tell the house of representatives and senate
And whatever business got the stimulus and spent it
Now they getting record profit that's tripling with no limits
But they cutting jobs and unemployment benefits have ended
How we gone live with no income coming in
And the little help we get is cut from the budget then
What's the role of government
Do workers stand a chance if multi billionaires are running it
Oh now you worried bout the deficit and cutting it
But when them banks needed billions you had enough for them.
Them car companies you had bucks for them
2 wars rebuilding 2 countries guess we stuck with them
the average citizen just ain't lucky then
cause we be getting pimped so I guess we getting fucked again

Rush Limbaugh works for multi billionaires
Bill O'Reilly works for multi billionaires
while corporations get billions in welfare
and millions in this country been out of work for years

Sean Hannity works for multi billionaires
Crazy Glenn Beck works for multi billionaires
they wanna end social security and medicare
while millions in this country don't have a dime to spare

When did the American worker become the enemy
Why is wanting a living wage such a penalty
What happened to justice and liberty
These billionaire haters wanna crush us literally
On the box is Murdoch and his foxes
And if you watch it you might as well be an ostrich
They terrorists cause they hold facts hostage
24 hours straight of we hate what Barack did
If you want to unionize your a communist
But if you buy a congressman they just call you a lobbyist
It's so obvious but here's where the problem is
they act like regular Americans but they sloppy rich
Why you think they wanna cut taxes
cause every single one of them in the higher brackets
This ain't white or black it's class warfare time for action
Just look at wide the gap is

American workers vs multi billionaires
The middle class vs multi billionaires
while corporations get billions in welfare
and millions in this country been out of work for years

Rupert Murdoch is multi billionaires
the Koch brothers are multi Billionaire
they wanna end social security and medicare
while millions in this country don't have a dime to spare

What Does It Take to Publish a Successful Digital Magazine?

Running an online magazine is rewarding, hard work

Clutch Founder/Editorial Director Deanna Sutton:
What Does It Take to Publish a Successful Digital Magazine?
by Felicia Pride

I don’t know when I first was introduced to Clutch magazine. But instantly I thought three things: dope + necessary+ finally. Under the passionate tutelage of founder and editorial director, Deanna Sutton, and under the banner ushering in the new era for young, contemporary women of color, Clutch represents an important model in digital publishing entrepreneurship—finding a need, successfully filling that need with high quality design and content, and connecting with your audience, sincerely at your home base and through social media. As a result, the magazine has accumulated a steady increase in viewers every quarter since its inception.

BackList caught up with the crazy busy Sutton to gain insight into her day-to-day, future goals for Clutch, and why tough skin is an essential trait for publishers.

BackList: What did you do in your previous life?

DS: I was in marketing and public relations for some top PR agencies and brands.

BackList: When did you first visualize Clutch?

Deanna Sutton: I first visualized Clutch in 2002 after I lost my father suddenly. I was in a deep state of depression and through an encounter with my best friend on the state of magazines for women our age, the idea was born. We started as print and re-launched as an online magazine in April 2007.

BackList: At one point, you were sort of running Clutch as a one-woman show. What was that like on a daily basis?

DS: I am blessed to have great friends, writers and supporters that helped a lot when Clutch first launched in 2007. But, yes up until about a year ago I was posting, assigning, publicizing and more for Clutch. No life.

BackList: Now that you have a team working with you, how have things changed?

DS: It’s still very hard. Coming up with content that our readers will like is extremely difficult. Our readers are one of a kind and expect nothing but the best and hold us accountable if we don’t give that. I still do everything I did before, now I just have some help.

BackList: Who is a Clutch reader and how did you finally profile her?

DS: The Clutch reader is extremely intelligent, fashionable, aware, social and progressive. It took me about 2 ½ years to figure out what our readers wanted and who the Clutch woman was. It took lots of chances on the content – from focusing on celebrities to fashion and beauty to finally commentary that matters to us. I am so not into celebs like that and I didn’t want Clutch to be stans for celebrities.

Read the Full Interview @ theBackList

Rapper Rhymefest in Runoff Race for Alderman

 

Is “Solidarity” Making a Comeback? Thoughts on the Return of a Long Neglected Concept

special to NewBlackMan

Is “Solidarity” Making a Comeback?
Thoughts on the Return of a Long Neglected Concept
by Mark Naison

When the union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun
Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one
But the union makes us strong

Solidarity forever, Solidarity forever
Solidarity forever, for the union makes us strong!
“Solidarity Forever”--Ralph Chapin

The success of the Wisconsin movement to protect collective bargaining rights of government workers, and of similar movements around the country, depends on the revival of a concept that has been out of favor in the United States for many years- the concept of “Solidarity.” Republican lawmakers like Scott Walker were clearly expecting that this concept was dormant when they decided to attack bargaining rights of public employees. They were gambling that workers in the private sector who had lower wages, less generous benefits, and less job security than government workers would want to see them cut down to size in a Recession. They were expecting that envy, rather than Solidarity, would govern the attitudes of people hit hard by the Recession. Their experience, and their ideology, suggested that working class Americans would be more interested in lowering their own tax rates then protecting the bargaining rights of their unionized brothers and sisters.

But the response of to the Wisconsin bill, and to similar bills in Ohio and Indiana, seems to have caught Republican lawmakers by surprise. Firefighters and police officers, both exempt from the elimination of bargaining rights the Walker Bill, both turned out in force to support the protests as the Wisconsin Capital. So did high schools students, who came to support their teachers, and University students, who feared the Governors next step would be steep tuition rises and the elimination of bargaining rights for graduate students. When you couple this local response with the support of organized labor nationally, the result was the largest labor protest in a state in recent American history, with 70,000 people turning out the first weekend of the demonstration.

And when you look at the growing size of protests at the Ohio State capital, where private sectors unions have joined public sector unions in denouncing a similar bill to the Wisconsin one, you have to ask “What is going on? Why are labor unions, which have been on the defensive for the last thirty years, able to mount this kind of movement? Why is Solidarity, out of favor for many years, suddenly back in fashion?”

To understand this, it helps to look back at American History. For the last one hundred years, Solidarity has been more notable in its absence than its presence in the American working class. For the first thirty years of the 20th Century, corporations were able to keep the largest and most fast growing industries in the country- steel, automobile, electronics, ground transportation- almost entirely union free by playing off workers against one another by race, religion, and national origin and convincing the majority of the white protestant population in the nation that organized labor was a foreign implant.

However, all that changed during the Great Depression. When banks failed and the economy imploded, leaving nearly a third of the labor force unemployed by 1933, and another third working part time, working class Americans, seeing that that hardship hit people of all racial and religious backgrounds, and in every region of the country, began to listen to labor organizers, and representatives of radical parties, who argued that individual effort could no longer assure prosperity and that workers could only improve their lives by organizing together.

These organizers made the argument that ALL workers would benefit when employed workers were able to form strong unions and they urged unemployed people to support unionization drives in major industries, rather than be recruited by employers to be strike breakers and anti-union vigilantes.

In the two most successful strikes of the Depression Era, the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934, which led to the unionization of a sizable share of overland truck traffic, and the Flint Sit down strikes of `1936-37 which led to the unionization of General Motors and US Steel, both of which involved pitched battles between strikers, police and Citizens Committees organized by employers, the unemployed either remained neutral or took the side of the strikers. As a result, employers not only were unable to recruit strikebreakers, they were unable, even with the police on their side, to control the streets surrounding the plants and warehouses that were on strike assuring that the protests went on for weeks, and months, until the employers finally agreed to union recognition. There were other conditions that led to the success of these strikes, such as the refusal of the Minnesota and Michigan governors to us the National Guard to remove workers from factories and warehouses, but the support of the unemployed who had nothing to gain, in the short run, from the success of these movements, was absolutely critical. Somehow, a critical mass of the unemployed, along with workers outside the affected industries, had come to believe in all workers would benefit when some workers achieved union recognition. They had become caught up in “union fever” the idea that only by organizing unions could workers attain dignity and respect as well as a decent standard of living and they fought side by side in the streets with striking workers until these communal battles were won.

Were they justified in this belief, or had they just succumbed to the UnAmerican propaganda of Communists and Socialists? Fast forward to the 1950’s. Thirty five percent of the American labor force is unionized, including most of those working in steel, auto, electronics and transportation. The people who built these unions not only had the highest standard of living in the world, they lived in one of the most equal advanced nations on the planet, where the top one percent of the population controlled 9 percent of national income, as opposed to 23 percent today. In New York City, where unions were particularly powerful, you had an amazing network of public universities, which charged no tuition, public hospitals, schools with free after school centers and great music and sports programs, and museums and zoos which charged no admission. The evidence is incontrovertible- the rise of organized labor, from the mid 1930’s to the mid 1950’s, coincided with a significant improvement in the standard of living of all American workers, whether or not they were in unions.

Most Americans do not know this. Except among people in union education departments and those who teach labor history in universities, the role of labor unions in spreading the benefits of prosperity in the years following the Depression is neither known, nor acknowledged. However, the current economic crisis, with its eerie parallels to the Great Depression, is making many working class Americans wonder whether their dreams of individual prosperity and security are still possible in a society where the housing market, banking system, and now local governments are in such trouble. Some may be blaming their plight on the “fat contracts” and “bloated pensions” of government workers, but others are wondering what the role of the banks and large corporations have been in putting them in such a predicament, and how they can fight back

It is in this context that the Wisconsin protests put forward a message that, to everyone’s surprise, touches a chord. Maybe working Americans have had enough of blaming unions and government for what has happened to them. Maybe they are starting to think that the calls for “sacrifice” that politicians of both parties are making should be directed toward the very wealthy, who are the only people who have not been hurt during the crisis. And maybe they are starting to hear a message that says that working Americans had better overcome their differences and start to fight for their rights or their hopes for a life of comfort and security will be gone forever.

Solidarity, here in America, in 2011? Look around you, in a million years, would you have expected there to be 70,000 people massed outside the Wisconsin State Capitol demanding protection of collective bargaining rights for government workers?. Why, the very thought is as improbable as Black students sitting in at lunch counters in 35 cities throughout the South.

History can move in mysterious ways.

And Solidarity may be making a comeback.

***

Mark Naison is a political activist who was a member of CORE and SDS in the 1960s. He is a graduate of Columbia University and holds a Ph. D. in American History. Naison is a professor at Fordham University in New York. He is the author of 'White Boy, A Memoir'.

Art That Matters--Carrie Mae Weems Takes on Gun Violence

With her 'Operation: Activate' project Carrie Mae Weems is making art that truly matters.

Artist Aims Latest Campaign at Senseless Gun Violence in Syracuse
by Mark Anthony Neal | TheLoop21

For more than 25 years, artist Carrie Mae Weems has earned a well deserved reputation for making art that highlights issues of privacy and intimacy in Black life. Beginning with her first project “Family Pictures and Stories” (1981-1982) to perhaps her most well known exhibition “The Kitchen Table Series,” (1990), currently on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, Weems has made the business of Black life behind closed doors an important feature of her art.

Recently Weems has gone against her usual process, mounting an exhibition of public art in the city of Syracuse, N.Y., where she currently lives, addressing the reality of gun violence that is tearing apart the city.

As part of a course that she teaches at Syracuse University, “Art and Civic Dialogue” and work she does with an artists collective that she founded a few years ago called Social Studies 101, Weems created Operation: Activate, 2011, using iconographic images, like those of the Black Panther Party and stark text to challenge the perpetrators of gun violence in the city.

Read the Full Essay @ theLoop21

'Left of Black': Episode #22 featuring S. Craig Watkins

Left of Black #22
w/S. Craig Watkins
February 21, 2011

Left of Black host Mark Anthony Neal welcomes Professor S. Craig Watkins (via Skype), author of the book The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future (Beacon Press).

→S. Craig Watkins is a Professor of Radio-Television-Film and Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of several books including Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement (Beacon Press 2005), Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema (The University of Chicago Press 1998) and most recently The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future. Currently, Watkins is launching a new digital media research initiative that focuses on the use and evolution of social media platforms. For updates on these and other projects visit theyoungandthedigital.com.

***

Left of Black is a weekly Webcast hosted by Mark Anthony Neal and produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University.

Happy Birthday, Ms. Simone

Nina Simone: She Cast a Spell—and Made a Choice
by Mark Anthony Neal
SeeingBlack.com Music Critic

I could do what you do, EASY! Believe me / Frontin' niggaz gives me heebe-geebes / So while you imitatin' Al Capone / I be Nina Simone and defecating on your microphone— Lauryn Hill, "Ready Or Not"

My skin is Black, My arms are long / My hair is wooly, My back is strong / Strong enough to take the pain / Afflicted again and again / What do they call me?— Nina Simone, "Four Women"

She was the voice of a movement. Deep blues, even darker hues, from the Delta to Dakar. When the old guard (Stokely and Martin and Ralph and dem)—in the days before Aretha—talked about the "voice" of the movement, they always invoked Nina Simone, Ms. Simone to all those who couldn't wrap their minds around this woman, Black woman, protest woman, iconical woman, the one woman whose very voice summoned the spirits of the Middle Passage, of those under the overseer's lash, of that charred fruit hanging from southern trees. — the spirits of blues whisperers, sacred singers, heavenly shouters and insatiable desires. This woman, Black woman, was the voice of a people.

When Nina Simone died quietly in her home in southern France on 21 April 2003, the spiritual essence of three generations of freedom fighters passed on to the otherworld the proverbial crossroads with her. With a voice that embodied the pain and power of the scattered African diaspora and classic West African facial features that suggested a short distance between the Tyron, North Carolina of her birth and Kwame Nkrumuh's Ghana, Nina Simone couldn't help being political. Listening to her sing "My Baby Cares for Me" from her debut recording Little Girl Blue (1959), one has to pause as she utters the line "Liz Taylor is not his style". Coming from the mouth of this woman Black, her invocation of "America's Sweetheart" was indeed a celebratory gesture towards the beauty of Black women. (In an ironic reversal, the song was featured in a 1987 Chanel ad campaign.) Simone's only Top 20 recording, Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy", was drawn from that first album.

By the early 1960s, Simone's music began to more directly echo the tenor of the times. Once the darling of the supper club set, Simone was more and more likely to be found performing at a Civil Rights fundraiser. Simone was brought into the movement at the behest of her good friend, the playwright Lorraine Hansberry (A Raisin in the Sun). It was because of her experiences with the movement that Simone wrote and recorded her most potent critique of American racism. As she recounts in her autobiography I Put a Spell on You, she was dramatically moved by the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four little Black girls. The attack took place less than three weeks after the March on Washington and marked a turning point in the Civil Rights movement as most of the movement's major figures, notably Martin Luther King, Jr. and SNCC's Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Toure) were pushed closer to radicalism. Simone restrained her own rage — she purportedly wanted to go out in the streets and shoot some White folks — and transformed that rage into the scathing political tome "Mississippi Goddam". The song was recorded live at Carnegie Hall in March of 1964. Simone's career her access to the super club set—would be radically altered by the recording.

At the beginning of the song, she announces "the name of this tune is 'Mississippi Goddamn'. And I mean every word of it," as her largely White audience laughs at her comments. The brilliance of the song lies in the way she initially destabilized the immediate reception of the song, by placing the song's lyrics on top of a swinging show tune beat. It was as if the song was performed to the music of the "Sambo Shuffle" — that moment when Sambo decides to stop "shuckin' and jivin'" and actually starts to speak "truth to power." The audience is still laughing with Simone after she sings the opening chorus ("Alabama's got me so upset / Tennessee makes me lose my rest / And everybody knows about Mississippi, Goddam") and states that "this is show tune, but the show hasn't been written for it yet." But this is where the song, and its reception, changes. Simone rips into America's race policy, simmering as she sings "don't tell me, I tell you / Me and my people just about due / I've been there so I know / You keep on saying go slow," a reference, in part, to the Brown vs. The Board of Education (Topeka, Kansas) Supreme Court decision which urged the desegregation of American public schools with the oxymoronic notion of "all deliberate speed". The audience is dead silent after the verse, a fact that Simone acknowledges, when she says to the crowd "bet you thought I was kidding". The moment seemed to only fuel the fury brewing underneath Simone's performance up to that point. When she starts singing "This whole country is full of lies / You all gonna die, die like flies," it is clear that she is in a space, in opposition to the non-violent stance of the mainstream Civil Right Movement, and one that portended the violence in American cities like Los Angeles (Watts), Newark and Detroit in the coming years.

Though contemporary audiences often miss the significance of Simone's rejection of the religiosity of the Civil Right Movement the woman publicly uttered Goddamn and openly questioned the value of prayer or the risk she took at the time with her critique., the reality is that better known and celebrated challenges to power, like NWA's "F*ck the Police" could not have occurred without Simone's brave stance. (the Dixie Chicks must have made her proud in her last days) Literally all of the mainstream protest music recorded by Black artists in the late 1960s and early 1970s, like Sly and the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin)", The Temptations' "Ball of Confusion", Freda Payne's "Bring the Boys Home", Roberta Flack's "Compared to What?," Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, and Stevie Wonder's Innervisions, were indebted to "Mississippi Goddamn". Simone would record other Black protest anthems like Billy Taylor's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free," which had been a long-time favorite of protest marchers, and "Why? (The King of Love is Dead)," her musical eulogy to Martin Luther King, Jr. But, as a Black woman, Simone also spoke to burgeoning Black feminist and Womanist movements.

Well before theorists discussed the realities of Black postmodern identities, Simone presented a portrait of Black femininity that spoke to various intersections of race, color, caste, sexuality and gender. I have little doubt that Nina Simone's "Four Women" was somewhere in the consciousnesses of Hortense Spillers and Kimberle Crenshaw, when they wrote their ground-breaking critical essays "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book" (1987) and "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics" (1989), respectively. In the song, Simone discusses the different though linked realities of Aunt Sarah ("my skin is black…my hair is wooly, my back is strong"), Saphronia ("my skin is yellow, my hair is long. Between two worlds I do belong"), Sweet Thing ("My skin is tan, my hair in fine, my hips invite you . . ."), and Peaches ("My skin is brown, my manner is tough, I'll kill the first mother I see"). The four women, represented what Patricia Hill-Collins would later describe in her book Black Feminist Thought (1990), as the "controlling images" of Black womanhood. Specifically mentioning Aunt Sarah, Saphronia, and Sweet Thing, Hill-Collins writes, "Simone explores Black women's objectification as the Other by invoking the pain these women actually feel."

Hip-hop artists Talib Kweli Greene (with Hi-Tek) paid tribute to Nina Simone's feminist vision on his recording Reflection Eternal (2000). Talib Kweli's "For Woman" updates the legacies of Aunt Sarah, Saphronia, Sweet Thing, and Peaches, taking into account the affects of Reaganism, crack cocaine addictions and the rampant spread of HIV infections. Michael Eric Dyson notes in his new book Open Mike: Reflections on Philosophy, Race, Sex, Culture and Religion that Kweli's version of the song "is a study in the narrative reconstruction of the fragmented elements of Black survival and a cautionary tale against the racial amnesia that destroys the fabric of Black collective memory." Dyson adds that "By baptizing Simone's sentiments in a hip-hop rhetorical form, Kweli raises new questions about the relation between history and contemporary social practice, and fuses the generational ambitions of two gifted artists."

The fact that a figure like Talib Kweli would be inclined to recover Simone's art was lost in much of the mainstream commentary about her death. In his obituary about Simone, Peter Keepnews, suggest that "In the 1970s her music fell out of fashion in the United States." (New York Times, 22 April 2003) But his comments disregard the whole generation of Black youth who were introduced to Simone via her classic "Young Gifted and Black" (1969). For many folks in the post-soul and hip-hop generation, their introduction to Simone music and songwriting came via hearing "Young, Gifted and Black", which became a mantra for the first generations to come of age after the Civil Rights era. As post-soul standard bearer Meshell Ndegeocello asserted in the Los Angeles Times, "Nina Simone was a messenger to our heart and conscience… No telling how many lives she touched with the simple affirmation of the beauty of being 'Young, Gifted and Black'."

The song, co-written with her musical director the late Weldon Irvine (a mentor to hip-hop artists like Talib Kweli and Mos Def), was meant as a tribute to her late friend Lorraine Hansberry who died of cancer in the mid-1960s. But the simple message of the song was so powerful, that is was immediately given tribute via the musical visions of Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway. Franklin's version anchors her 1972 recording Young, Gifted and Black, her most explicit political recording and Donny Hathaway's live version of the song, which appears on the posthumously released In Performance ranks among his best performances. (He also recorded a studio version on his debut Everything is Everything, 1969).

Ndegeocello's observations about Simone finds resonance in the music of some hip-hop generation artists. Besides his "deconstruction" of "Four Woman," Talib Kweli's "Get By" (from his current Quality) Simone's sampled voice (from her rendition of "Sinnerman", which at once references the West-African subtext of much of Simone's music and notions of Afro-religiosity ("Get By" is definitely on the "way out of no way" spiritual tip). In another example, Lauryn Hill consciously invoked Nina Simone's name on The Fugee's "Ready or Not" (The Score, 1996) in an effort to distinguish her womanist musings from the gangsterization of mainstream hip-hop In yet another example the famed reconstitutionists, MAW (Masters at Work's "Little" Louie Vega and Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez), re-mixed Simone's "See-Line Woman" last year (for the Verve//Remixed project, giving Simone a club hit in the process.

The interests in Simone's music by a generation of artists, largely born after her recording of "Mississippi Goddam" is just further evidence of the potency of her spirit. The title of Simone's autobiography, I Put a Spell on You paid tribute to her rendition of the Screaming Jay Hawkins composition. In Hawkins' hand the song was an uncomfortable (at least to Whites) acknowledgement of the "dark" powers of Black masculinity in a society where young White women, had been largely denied access to that masculinity. But in the hands of Simone, the song was transformed into a moment of high catharsis. Nina Simone put her own spell on us, one that serves those from the Delta to Dakar, and beyond, well into the future.

— June 4, 2003 (SeeingBlack.com)

Ashton Kutcher twitter presence

Christopher Ashton Kutcher born February 7, 1978, best known as Ashton Kutcher, is an American actor, producer, former fashion model and comedian, best known for his portrayal of Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show. He also created, produced and hosted Punk'd, and played lead roles in the Hollywood films Dude, Where's My Car?, Just Married, The Butterfly Effect, The Guardian, and What Happens in Vegas. He is also the producer and co-creator of the supernatural TV show Room 401 and the reality TV show Beauty and the Geek.
Contents
* 1 Early life
* 2 Career
* 3 Personal life
o 3.1 Twitter presence
* 4 Filmography
o 4.1 As a producer
* 5 Awards
* 6 References
* 7 External links
Early life
Kutcher was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Larry Kutcher, a factory worker, and Diane (née Finnegan), a Procter & Gamble employee. He is of part Irish ancestry on his mother's side. was raised in a conservative Roman Catholic family, an older sister, Tausha, and a fraternal twin, Michael, who had a heart transplant when the brothers were young children. Kutcher attended Washington High School in Cedar Rapids for his freshman year before his family moved to Homestead, Iowa, where he attended Clear Creek Amana High School. In a 2010 interview on Late Night with David Letterman, Kutcher claimed to be an all-state linebacker who averaged 15 tackles per game in high school. According to a former coach, however, Kutcher played sparingly as a wide receiver on a team that won only two games in his entire high school football career. Kutcher also appeared in school plays.
Kutcher's brother suffering from cardiomyopathy caused his home life to become increasingly stressful. He has stated that "I didn't want to come home and find more bad news about my brother" and "kept myself so busy that I didn't allow myself to feel". admitted that during adolescence, he contemplated committing suicide. At thirteen, he attempted to jump from a Cedar Rapids hospital balcony, with his father intervening in the incident. Kutcher's home life worsened as his parents divorced when he was sixteen. During his senior year, he broke into his high school at midnight with his cousin in an attempt to steal money; he was arrested leaving the scene. Kutcher was convicted of third-degree burglary and sentenced to three years' probation and 180 hours of community service. Kutcher stated that although the experience "straightened him out", he lost his girlfriend and anticipated college scholarships, and he was ostracized at school and in his community.
Kutcher enrolled at the University of Iowa in August 1996, where his planned major was biochemical engineering, motivated by the desire to find a cure for his brother's heart ailment. At college, Kutcher was kicked out of his apartment for being too "noisy" and "wild". Kutcher stated, "I thought I knew everything but I didn't have a clue. I was partying, and I woke up many mornings not knowing what I had done the night before. I played way too hard. I am amazed I am not dead." To earn money for his tuition, Kutcher worked as a college summer hire in the cereal department for the General Mills plant in Cedar Rapids, and sometimes donated blood for money. During his time at UI he was approached by a scout at a bar called "The Airliner" in Iowa City and was recruited to enter the "Fresh Faces of Iowa" modeling competition. After placing first, he dropped out of college and won a trip to New York City to the International Modeling and Talent Association (IMTA) Convention. Following his stay in New York City, Kutcher returned to Cedar Rapids before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting.
Career
After participating as a modeling contestant in an IMTA competition (losing to Josh Duhamel) in 1998, Kutcher signed with the Next modeling agency in New York, appeared in ads for Calvin Klein, modeled in Paris and Milan, and appeared in a Pizza Hut commercial.[citation needed]
After some success in modeling, Kutcher moved to Los Angeles and, after his first audition, was cast as Michael Kelso in the television series That '70s Show, which debuted in 1998 and ended in 2006. Kutcher was cast in a series of film roles; although he auditioned but was not cast for the role of Danny Walker in Pearl Harbor (2001),[12] he starred in several comedy films, including Dude, Where's My Car? (2000), Just Married (2003), and Guess Who (2005). He briefly appeared in the 2003 family film, Cheaper By The Dozen, playing a self-obsessed actor. His 2004 film The Butterfly Effect was an unusually dramatic role for Kutcher, playing a conflicted young man who fell in love with a girl called Kayleigh; the film received mixed to negative reviews, but was a box-office success.
In 2003, Kutcher produced and starred in his own series on MTV's Punk'd as the host. The series involved various hidden camera tricks performed on celebrities. Kutcher is also an executive producer of the reality television shows Beauty and the Geek, Adventures in Hollyhood (based around the rap group Three 6 Mafia), and The Real Wedding Crashers and the game show Opportunity Knocks. Many of his production credits, including Punk'd, come through Katalyst Films, a production company he runs with partner Jason Goldberg
Because of scheduling conflicts with the filming of The Guardian, Ashton was forced not to renew his contract for the eighth and final season of That 70s Show, although he did appear in the first four episodes of it (credited as a special guest star) and returned for the show's series finale.
Kutcher was part of the management team for Ooma, a tech start-up launched in September 2007. Ooma is in the Voice over Internet Protocol business and Ashton's role was as Creative Director. He was spearheading a marketing campaign and producing viral videos to promote this service. Kutcher has also created an interactive arm of Katalyst called Katalyst Media with his partner from Katalyst Films, Jason Goldberg. Their first site is the animated cartoon Blah Girls. Ooma revamped its sales and marketing strategy with a new management team in the summer of 2008, replacing Ashton Kutcher as their creative director. Rich Buchanan, from Sling Media, became Ooma's Chief Marketing Officer.
Kutcher produced and starred in the 2010 action comedy, Killers, in which he played a hitman.
Kutcher guest hosted WWE Monday Night Raw on May 31, 2010. There was controversy over the event due to Kutcher only being seen on screen and not in person by many in attendance.
He currently advertises for Nikon cameras.
Personal life
Kutcher and Moore, September 2008
In 2003, Kutcher began dating Demi Moore. Moore and Kutcher married on September 24, 2005, in a private ceremony conducted by a Rabbi of the Kabbalah Center; the wedding was attended by about 150 close friends and family of the couple, including Bruce Willis, Moore's ex-husband. In October 2010, Kutcher and Moore met with co-director of the Kabbalah Center Rabbi Yehuda Berg in Israel.
Kutcher has invested in an Italian restaurant, Dolce (other owners include Danny Masterson and Wilmer Valderrama) and a Japanese-themed restaurant named Geisha House located in Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York.
Kutcher is a self described fiscal conservative and social liberal.He is a student of Kabbalah; his co-star, Natalie Portman, stated in 2011 that Kutcher "has taught me more about Judaism than I think I have ever learned from anyone else".
On September 17, 2008, Kutcher was named the assistant coach for the freshman football team at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles. However, he was unable to return in 2009 because he was filming Spread.
Twitter presence
On April 16, 2009, Kutcher ("aplusk") became the first user of Twitter to have more than 1,000,000 followers, beating CNN in the "Million followers contest". Kutcher announced via Twitter that he would be donating $100,000 to a charity to fight malaria. However, there have been several reports that Twitter manipulated the contest's results by preventing users from "unfollowing" Kutcher or CNN.
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